Panel ex-chairman says he was told arson probe a waste (Perry interfered in forensic investigation)

[struggle4progress]

By ALLAN TURNER and R.G. RATCLIFFE Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
Oct. 13, 2009, 9:32PM

Lawyers representing Gov. Rick Perry on two occasions grilled Austin lawyer Sam Bassett on the activities of his Texas Forensic Science Commission, telling him its probe into a controversial Corsicana arson case was inappropriate and opining that the hiring of a nationally known fire expert was a “waste of state money,” the ousted commission chairman said Tuesday.

Bassett, who served two two-year terms as commission chairman before Perry replaced him on Sept. 30, said he was so concerned about what he considered “pressure” from the lawyers that he conferred with an aide to state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, who reassured him “the commission was doing what it's supposed to do.”

Whitmire, who authored legislation creating the commission, has vowed to press Bassett's replacement, Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, to continue the probe into the 1991 fire that killed three children and sent their father, Cameron Todd Willingham, to death row.

Perry turned down Willingham's plea for clemency, which said nationally recognized arson experts concluded his conviction was based in part on flawed forensics, and he was executed in 2004 ...

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6666318.html