The Petition for Posthumous Pardon and supporting documents are available from the Innocence Project.
"Executed Texan’s Family Seeks Pardon," is Ethan Bronner's report in today's New York Times.
Two decades after a Texas man was convicted of murdering his three young
daughters by setting his own house on fire, and eight years after a
campaign to prove his innocence failed to stop his execution, his family
petitioned on Wednesday for a posthumous pardon.
The case of Cameron Todd Willingham
of Corsicana, Tex., has drawn attention because it seems to offer
evidence that an innocent man was executed based on flawed science.
Spurred partly by this case, the Texas fire marshal recently agreed to
re-examine questionable arson convictions.
The battle to clear Mr. Willingham’s name has symbolic value for those
fighting to end the death penalty. Six years ago, Justice Antonin Scalia
of the Supreme Court wrote that he was unaware of “a single case — not
one — in which it is clear that a person was executed for a crime he did
not commit.”
Mr. Willingham’s conviction was based heavily on testimony by the Texas
state fire marshal, who asserted that the scene offered clear signs of
arson. Recent research has raised substantial questions about his
conclusions and led to a review of other arson convictions in Texas.
That research is scheduled to be presented to a panel of fire experts by
January, and advocates say it could lead to the reversal of several wrongful convictions.
“Todd’s last words were: ‘Please clear my name. I did not kill my children,’ ” said Stephen Saloom, policy director of the Innocence Project,
which has led the work on this case, with the pro bono assistance of
the New York law firm Schulte Roth & Zabel. The Innocence Project is
affiliated with Cardozo Law School at Yeshiva University.
“All the evidence against him has been disproven,” Mr. Saloom said.
“There have been nine reports issued about this case over the years. We
are saying to the board: you couldn’t have known before, but now you
have all this evidence before you.”
"A family asks: Was an innocent man executed for arson murders?" is by Molly Hennessy-Fiske for the Los Angeles Times.
Relatives of Cameron Todd Willingham, a Texas man executed eight
years ago for the arson deaths of his three young daughters, are
petitioning the state to hold a public hearing, issue a posthumous
pardon and clear his name.
The pardon request comes as state officials are collaborating with the Lubbock-based Innocence Project of Texas on an unprecedented review of closed arson cases
statewide, looking for scientific errors that may have contributed to
wrongful convictions. The inquiry, the first of its kind in the
country, is expected to change the way fire investigations are
conducted.
Willingham's defenders maintain that faulty fire investigations, or "junk science," led to his conviction and death.
Willingham
was convicted in 1992 of setting a fire at his home in Corsicana, about
55 miles south of Dallas, that killed his 2-year-old daughter and
1-year-old twins on Dec. 23, 1991. The Texas Board of Pardons and
Paroles refused him clemency, appeals courts declined to stay his
execution, and Willingham, 36, was executed on Feb. 17, 2004.
But
according to the family's petition for a pardon, "since his trial,
scientific advances have shattered every assumption underlying the
testimony of the two fire investigators who declared to the jury and the
court that Willingham set the fire."
Willingham’s stepmother and
two cousins appeared at a briefing in the state capital with their
attorneys Wednesday to speak out on his behalf.
“I would like to
be proud of the Willingham name again. I would like Todd’s name to be
taken out of the infamous list in his hometown,” stepmother Eugenia
Willingham of Ardmore, Okla., said.
Willingham’s cousin Judy
Cavnar, 60, also of Ardmore, described her last conversation with
Willingham, a phone call less than an hour before he was put to death.
“He
said in a very firm voice, ‘I did not set that fire,’ ” Cavnar said,
tearing up. “It was important to him that we clear his name and the name
of his children.”
"Family seeks posthumous pardon for Texas convict," by Matt Smith at CNN.
The family of a Texas convict executed for the deaths of his three
daughters in a 1991 fire launched a new effort to clear his name
Wednesday by asking the state parole board for a posthumous pardon.
Cameron Todd Willingham
was put to death in 2004 for setting the fire that killed the girls:
Amber, Karmon and Kameron. But three expert reviews have concluded
Willingham's conviction was based on evidence of arson that was
outdated, and his family has insisted on his innocence.
"An error was made, and
it is not too late to clear it up," the family's lawyers wrote in a
petition filed with the state Board of Pardons and Paroles in Austin.
Willingham and his family "deserve more," and "perhaps more importantly,
the State of Texas deserves more."
The board denied clemency
for Willingham before his execution, dismissing the first of three
reviews that questioned the arson finding at the heart of Willingham's
prosecution. Two subsequent studies have reached the same conclusion,
finding that most of the signs investigators looked for as proof the
fire was deliberately set had been rendered obsolete by a series of
studies in the 1990s.
The last study was
produced for the Texas Forensic Science Commission, which began looking
into the Willingham case in 2008. A subsequent shakeup of the commission
by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who allowed Willingham's execution to go
forward, led to accusations that the governor was trying to derail the
investigation.
Perry has called
Willingham a "monster" whose conviction withstood every appeal. Police
and prosecutors in Corsicana, where the fire occurred, also stand by
their case. Willingham professed his innocence in his final statement,
but his ex-wife has said he confessed to killing the girls before the
execution.
A jailhouse informant who
testified in his trial has recanted his statement that Willingham
admitted to setting the fire, and a now-retired judge who sat on the
state court that rejected Willingham's appeal has written that the
execution was "a miscarriage of justice" for which he was partly
responsible, the family noted in its petition.
"Willingham's Family Seeks 'Posthumous Pardon'," by Maurice Chammah at the Texas Tribune.
As his 2004 execution date neared, his attorneys sent Gov. Rick Perry
and the Board of Pardons and Paroles a report by Gerald Hurst, a fire
expert, suggesting that the conviction was based on deeply flawed
forensic methods. Evidence that had been used to prove arson at the
trial, he explained, was simply evidence present in any fire scene.
In the years that followed, an article in The New Yorker and several documentaries brought national attention to the case.
In
2010, District Judge Charlie Baird held a hearing to determine whether
there was sufficient evidence to hold a court of inquiry regarding a
possible wrongful execution. A Texas appeals court barred him from releasing an opinion, accusing him of bias in the case.
In January that year, Attorney General Greg Abbott released an opinion
stating that posthumous pardons can be granted. In March, Perry
officially pardoned Timothy Cole, who had died while serving time in
prison for a 1986 kidnapping and rape of which he was later cleared by
DNA.
Goldstein, who works with the Innocence Project, said the
New York-based organization is looking at 26 cases of arson for possible
wrongful convictions. The only man exonerated from Texas’ death row in
an arson case, Ernest Willis, also spoke to reporters, having driven
from his home in Mississippi. “I got lucky,” he said, highlighting
parallels between his and Willingham’s convictions. “Let’s give his
family some relief.”
The AP filing is, "Family of executed man seeks pardon in arson deaths," written by Chris Tomlinson. It's via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
The state fire marshal's office stood by their findings in the case
until 2011, when the Texas Forensics Commission ruled the methods used
were profoundly scientifically flawed.
"I promised [Todd] we would
not falter on our commitment to exonerate him, and by doing so, he and
the rest of the family could find peaceful closure," said Judy Cavnar,
Willingham's cousin. "I further believe Todd expected us to expose the
outdated scientific methods used in processing the evidence, the same
evidence that plagues so many cases and sent him to a premature grave."
The
Texas Forensics Commission last year recommended a review of all arson
convictions based on the same science used to convict Willingham. The
recommendation came after the state attorney general limited the scope
of its investigation into Willingham's case, prompting the panel to
decline to issue a finding on any alleged negligence or misconduct by
the State Fire Marshall's Office in the case.
The forensics
commission previously determined the techniques used to convict
Willingham were flawed, such as the belief that crackling of windows is
an indication of arson. Scientists now know the crackling happens when
firefighters spray cold water on them.
Gerry Goldstein, the
attorney for the family, said the report submitted Wednesday to the
Board of Pardons and Paroles uses the latest science to prove every
indicator used by the fire marshal to prove arson in Willingham's case
actually proves the fire was accidental. "This is not like a witness who
forgot something, this is like DNA. This is science," Goldstein said.
Also
speaking in support of the family Wednesday was Ernest Willis, who
spent 17 years on Texas' death row for a similar arson conviction and
spent time with Willingham in prison. Willis' attorneys convinced the
district attorney in his case to help exonerate him after experts
refuted the old arson evidence. The state released Willis one month
after Willingham's execution.
"I got lucky, I got a big firm out
of New York ... that spent 12 long years and spent $5 million on experts
and that's what this is all about, money and politics," Willis said.
"Gov. Perry needs to step forward and give this family some relief."
"Family seeks pardon for executed man convicted on faulty science," by Mike Ward in the Austin American-Statesman.
The request for clemency was announced Wednesday morning at a Capitol
press conference attended by Ernest Willis, 67, who was freed from
death row in 2004 on an arson conviction that was thrown out over the
same discredited investigation techniques that got Willingham convicted.
Willis was exonerated eight months after Willingham was executed.
“I
wish Todd would have gotten the same consideration that I did. He would
still be here,” said Willis, who served time on death row with
Willingham and became his friend.
There was no immediate
indication of when the state Board of Pardons and Paroles might decide
on the Willingham request. The board had denied Willingham’s clemency
request just before he was executed, without having access to a noted
arson expert’s report that refuted the conclusions drawn from evidence
in his case.
Harry Battson, a spokesman for the board, confirmed
the application had been filed and will be voted upon after review.
Despite a request from Willingham’s relatives for a public hearing on
the issue, parole officials said current rules don’t allow for that.
Gov.
Rick Perry, who would have to approve a pardon based on any favorable
recommendation from the board, approved the state’s first posthumous
pardon in March 2010 — of Timothy Cole, who spent more than 13 years in
prison — and died there — for a 1985 Lubbock rape it was later proven he
didn’t commit.
Perry’s press secretary, Catherine Frazier, said
the governor hasn’t changed his position: that courts upheld
Willingham’s arson-murder conviction and the death sentence. She noted
that Perry cannot grant a pardon without a favorable recommendation from
the parole board.
"Willingham's family asks for posthumous pardon," by Peggy Fikac and Allan Turner for the Hearst-owned Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News.
"This isn't about money. ... This is about the future. The future of
these people's reputation," Goldstein said Wednesday. "Everyone wants to
leave this Earth with a reputation. Todd Willingham is entitled to that
just as much as the rest of us."
Goldstein said there is "indisputable evidence" on Willingham's side
and "every scientist who has looked at it has agreed that Todd
Willingham was convicted on junk science."
Willingham's case came under public scrutiny in 2008 when the New
York-based Innocence Project asked the Texas Forensic Science Commission
to review the state and local arson investigations that helped send
Willingham to death row.
"Cameron Todd Willingham's Family Seeks Posthumous Pardon For 'Wrongfully Executed' Texas Man," by Michael McLaughlin at Huffington Post.
The parole board is expected to take several months to review the
pardon request, a spokesman told HuffPost. The seven member panel will
then recommend that the governor either approve or reject the petition.
In 2011, the board didn't support approval of any of the 28 capital cases it reviewed in which there was a request for pardon, commuted sentence or reprieve from the death penalty.
If granted, it would be only the second pardon in Texas history
issued after a convict's death. In 2010, Gov. Rick Perry pardoned Timothy Cole, who died in prison after serving 14 years for a rape he did not commit.
"Petition requests Willingham posthumous pardon," by Janet Jacobs in the Corsicana Daily Sun.
Corsicana fire and police detectives who investigated the death of the
three little girls have repeatedly defended their handling of the case —
and the 1992 conviction. Willingham was executed in 2004, after a dozen
years of appeals.
Filing the petition is just the beginning of the process, according to
Harry Battson, spokesman for the Board of Pardons and Paroles.
“We received the application today,” Battson confirmed, adding that it
won’t be an overnight decision. “Our clemency people tell us the average
is months, not weeks. We’re looking at a period of time before it comes
to a vote.”
Before that, the investigators, and the children’s mother will all be
asked to file a statement on whether or not Willingham’s name should be
cleared.
“They will have an opportunity and time period to input their thoughts
on the application,” Battson explained. After all the statements are
compiled, then the file will be submitted to each of the board members
one at a time.
“They don’t actually vote at a meeting,” Battson said. “They
sequentially review the file. Each member reviews it then casts a vote,
then it goes to the next board member.”
If a majority of the seven board members vote in favor of granting the
posthumous pardon then it will be sent to the governor’s office. The
governor doesn’t have to grant the pardon, regardless of how the board
votes.
“The board makes a recommendation to the governor,” Battson said.
Earlier coverage of Todd Willingham begins at the link. All Willingham coverage is available through the Todd Willingham index.
The Beyler report prepared for the Forensic Science Commission is here in Adobe .pdf format.
David Grann's September 2009 New Yorker article is noted here.
Steve Mills and Maurice
Possley first reported on the case in a
2004 Chicago Tribune series on junk
science. The December 9, 2004 report was
titled,"Man executed on disproved forensics."
The Innocence Project has a Todd Willingham resource page which provides a concise overview of the Willingham case with links to all relevant documents.