Horrible New Yorker Story about Texas executing an innocent man in 2004. A MUST READ!!!

[KansasVoter]

Anyone who thinks the death penalty is still a good idea is just not using any logic at all!

This is the story of Cameron Todd Willingham. A 100% innocent man executed for a arson fire he did not start! Read it and pass it on!

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/09/07/090907fa_fact_grann

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

1. I read it last night. Chillling. Especially the folklore "forensics" that convict people

In a nutshell it's the story of a guy who lost his three daughters in a horrific housefire who is tried and sentenced to die and is in fact executed on what turns out to be an extremely unsophisticated arson "investigation" that seems more akin to dousing for water than anything else.

I have read other stories of people convicted on "bite mark" evidence that turns out the entire field is pretty much fabricated and populated by self-accredited experts.

We are just a few generations past witch burnings and sometimes it really shows.

[TexasObserver]

2. Recommend

[sharp_stick]

3. Scary

really really scary. What bothers me even more is that I don't think the State of Texas really gives a shit if the people they strap down are truly guilty or not. As long as they aren't people that "matter" the State couldn't care less.

I almost wish Perry was successful in seceding from the Union, fuck em'.

[drmeow]

8. Very close to what I was thinking

which was, "I hate Texas." The subtitle of "Did Texas execute an innocent man?" - given their track record is there any doubt they've executed some, whether or not this guy was innocent.

[ccharles000]

4. k/r

[chknltl]

5. The ONLY way to guarantee that this does not happen again:

Abolish the death penalty.
nuff said

[drmeow]

10. The death penalty

is, in my mind, the STUPIDEST punishment ever. Its really mostly a punishment of the people who love the person who is executed. Even ignoring the risk of executing someone innocent, its a waste of money and resources, doesn't deter crime, and is used unfairly (people with darker skin and less money are the ones put to death). This is not to say that there aren't people who I don't think deserve to live, people who are simply a waste of natural resources because they breath, eat, and expel waste (a number of them are in the previous administration ... also that rapist/kidnapper guy ... people like that). But I can think of FAR, FAR, FAR more cruel and unusual punishments for them than the death penalty. And I can think of less cruel and unusual but socially beneficial punishments for them, too.

[spanone]

6. it's called MURDER. execution is murder. state sponsored or not.

[Hissyspit]

7. I heard about it on NPR last week. New evidence made it clear he was innocent, yet no SERIOUS review

by board or amnesty from the governor.

So I guess the story is wrong. We never execute innocent people. And there are no innocent people in U.S. prisons. :sarcasm:

[spanone]

9. george bu$h* said he was 100% certain all he executed were guilty

all 131 of them.

[drmeow]

11. George Bush also is certain

that he's innocent of crimes against humanity. With GWB, every day is opposite day.

[FreakinDJ]

12. ignored scientific evidence

“The only reasonable conclusion is that the governor’s office and the Board of Pardons and Paroles ignored scientific evidence.”

.Just before Willingham received the lethal injection, he was asked if he had any last words. He said, “The only statement I want to make is that I am an innocent man convicted of a crime I did not commit. I have been persecuted for twelve years for something I did not do. From God’s dust I came and to dust I will return, so the Earth shall become my throne.”

[theorys]

13. No more

/sigh I agree, the death penalty should be abolished

[ezgoingrl]

14. k&r

I'm speechless.

[Greybnk48]

15. This IS a must read. I posted it on my Facebook page.

It's chilling to know that many fire/arson inspectors have no real training.

[KansasVoter]

16. Good Idea, I will also!

[Th1onein]

17. This is so sad.

We really do need to abolish the Death Penalty.