Texans: Did we execute an innocent man?

[madmom]

(CNN) -- A Texas state board revisited questions surrounding a 2004 execution on Friday amid warnings from critics of the controversial execution that the panel is trying to bury its own critical review of the case.

Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in 2004, 13 years after a fire killed his three daughters. Prosecutors argued that Willingham deliberately set the 1991 blaze -- but three reviews of the evidence by outside experts have found the fire should not have been ruled arson.

The last of those reports was ordered by the Texas Forensic Sciences Commission, which has been looking into Willingham's execution since 2008. But a September 2009 shake-up by Texas Gov. Rick Perry has kept that panel from reviewing the report, and the commission's new chairman has ordered a review of its operating rules. Critics say that may kill the probe.

"They are attempting permanently to keep the investigation from continuing and moving on, and I do believe it's because they don't like the direction the evidence is leading," Willingham's cousin, Pat Cox, said Thursday.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/07/23/texas.execution.probe/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn

[TexasObserver]

1. Yes, Texas executed at least one innocent man. Probably others.

The entire system in Texas is designed to give anyone accused the worst possible treatment, from the moment they are apprehended to the moment they are executed. The "standards" for appellate review are a joke, a very bad, evil joke.

The Texas "criminal justice" system is a factory designed to fill prisons with people, guilty or not.

[w8liftinglady]

2. exaactly-prison is business...run by private corporations

http://www.texasprisonbidness.org/

http://mediafilter.org/mff/prison.html

http://bostonreview.net/BR34.6/barry.php

[justabob]

3. yes, at least once

I shudder to think how many people have been wrongly executed, especially in light of all the people being released after years and years of wrongful incarceration. I know Dallas CO has seen dozens of folks released, and I believe Houston has too.

[JonLP24]

4. K&R

I'm very much aware of this case on other cases--including one--where the prosecutor that asked for DP now admits the mistake he made and is now against it.

On to this one. Yes he did exhibit odd behavior and that was largely what he was convicted on. However IIRC there was no sign that he started the fire.

[tammywammy]

5. At least one. n/t

[joeybee12]

6. The question is not, "Did we?" but "How many?" n/t

[midnight]

17. That's the question that comes to my mind!

[elehhhhna]

7. Yes, we did. "Fire Science" wasn't science at all, then --

it was all assumptions and training was via oral history. Fire science has developed since then and we did, evidently, execute an innocent man. The shame is on Perry. He could have stopped it.

[tammywammy]

8. Well, he couldn't really stop it

The governor can issue a 30 day stay and that's it. The Parole Board is the one that can ultimately stop an execution, and while Perry could pressure the board to stop one, he can't really stop it beyond the 30 days.

[Th1onein]

30. Yeah, right.

But the Board will do what the governor wants them to do. If the governor pressures members of the board, they will recommend clemency, or a pardon, or a commutation. That's the reality.

[elleng]

9. NO; Imagine that!

:sarcasm:

[Orsino]

10. You mean today? n/t

[MilesColtrane]

11. Rick Perry seems to think so.

He's doing everything he can to suppress an investigation.

Wouldn't look good for Goodhair's electability if it comes out that he gave an innocent man the needle.

[jobycom]

16. The report won't be able to prove Willingham was innocent.

All the reports on the fire evidence have concluded that arson wasn't proven, but none of them claim arson wasn't possible. So that's about all the report will say.

Perry doesn't want it because it still makes him look bad. He should have granted a new trial based on the changed evidence, but instead he let Willingham be executed. The report will likely say that, and in an election year with a close race, that won't help him. It's not that he thinks Willingham is innocent, it's that he knows he himself is guilty.

[USArmyParatrooper]

12. Republicans, Big Guvamint and Capital Punishment.

It's funny how the Repubs say big guvamint can't do anything right...... except be absolutely flawless when convicting people and sentencing them to death.

Innocent people get convicted all the time. There are countless cases of people being released from prison due to wrongful convictions. And that begs the question - how many innocent people will never be exonerated? Only an idiot or someone completely blinded by bias thinks we never execute innocent people.

In modern civilization capital punishment is just shameful. But it will never go away until people's attitudes change. Our attitudes are what shape our government. For now we're stuck with politicians who are scared to death of appearing "soft on crime"

[MnFats]

13. The Chicago Tribune (!!) several years ago documented...

...several cases, at least a half-dozen or so, in which men who were almost certainly innocent at the time Texas put them to death......half of that number were absolute travesties...

I think the Tribune still has this series in its archives.............

[AnArmyVeteran]

14. Conservatives 'trust' government to kill people, but not help the sick

What kind of twisted people are conservatives? They trust the government to spy, go to war, wiretap and execute prisoners, but they don't trust government to help people in need or who are sick. And these conservatives 'claim' to be 'christians'. LOL

I like what Alan Grayson said, "May god have mercy on your souls". I can count on my hand how many real leaders we have in congress. And Grayson is one of them.

[IDemo]

23. +1,000

Recommended. "Family values" mean a lot to these idiots, don't they?

[AnArmyVeteran]

25. Family Values LOLOLOL! What idiots they are!

BTW, I forgot they also trust government to torture people too! But god forbid the government helping anyone!

NO ONE can be a conservative and a christian at the same time. They are exact opposites!

[Enthusiast]

27. They are twisted, brother, twisted. nt

[jobycom]

15. Probably not in that case, but we have.

Garry Graham comes to mind. Of course, he was a piece of slime who was hardly innocent of other crimes, but he was unlikely to be the one who killed the person he died for.

Another one coming up is Rodney Reed. He's another piece of slime accused of raping several women, though he was acquitted the one time he was tried for it. He was sentenced to death for raping and murdering a woman in Bastrop, based on semen DNA found in her. He later claimed he was having an affair with her, but didn't kill her. Meanwhile, her boyfriend was a cop in the area, and also had a history of violence against women. Witnesses saw them fighting just before she was murdered (in fact, after the time they claimed Reed murdered her). Witnesses testified he had claimed before that he would strangle any girlfriend who cheated on him with his belt--the victim was strangled with a belt. Since the trial, the boyfriend has been accused of beating other women a couple of times, and I think he's even served jail time for it.

Willingham, from all I've seen, was likely guilty. He had a history of abuse, had threatened to kill the children before, and according to his wife confessed before his execution. He had a history of spousal and animal abuse. His last words were directed at his ex wife: "I hope you rot in hell, bitch; I hope you fucking rot in hell, bitch. You bitch; I hope you fucking rot, cunt. That is it," as he tried to flip her off. He said this after the pretty speech about being an innocent man.

Some of his testimony, too, was impossible. He claimed he was forced from the house by smoke, but his lungs had no smoke in them when tested afterwards. The refrigerator had been pushed against the back door of the house to prevent anyone from getting in. He claimed he had crawled into the twins' bedroom but could not find them, but one of their bodies was found directly in front of the door, and indicated she had been sleeping there before the fire. There was a barricade in front of that door that he couldn't have crawled over.

I think he did it. But I also know the trial evidence was deeply flawed. The ruling of arson was based on flawed interpretations of the evidence, and seemed more interested in proving arson than in an honest analysis. The inspector was poorly trained on outdated information. That alone should have forced Perry to give him a new trial.

Contrary to how some have interpreted the various reports, no one has ruled that the fire couldn't have been arson. They have all ruled that arson was not proven, but none ruled it out. That's the real issue--why wasn't he given a new trial when a major part of the evidence was refuted by scientific progress? I guess that's too fine an argument for people to get passionate about, but that's the real issue.

So I think he was guilty. I also think he was denied a fair trial and proper appeals, mostly because Rick Perry wanted to look tough.

You can tell I'm bored at work, eh?

[rschop]

18. RE: Texans: Did we execute an innocent man?

Come on, they did not execute an innocent man, (IMHO) they murdered an innocent man. That (IMHO)makes the governor and in fact all of Texans who took part in this execution out and out murders.

But you have to understand Texas. In Texas (IMHO) there is no such thing as a US Constitution, because they can make it say whatever they want to make it say.

And no has any rights. Everyone is presumed guilty until proven innocent.

My advice is stay out of Texas!

[w8liftinglady]

19. how about those of us who are stuck here?

We ARE trying to change things...it's just an uphill battle.If we leave,they win

[Greyhound]

20. Yes, many.

:kick: & R

[ThoughtCriminal]

21. ...again!?

[Ignis]

22. Yes. No question about it. More than once.

http://www.innocenceproject.org/

[PM Martin]

24. Conservatives trust government to murder people.

Interesting.

[Enthusiast]

26. It's Texas.

They have had a questionable history of justice since Judge Roy Bean.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judge_Roy_Bean

[madokie]

28. We should not have a death penalty

no reason for it other than barbarianism

[DFW]

29. Texas has probably executed dozens of innocent men

Uncaring prosecutors and willing accomplice police (not all--the DPD has some really good guys on it),
looking for headlines and career advancement, do so over dead bodies. Dropping charges against falsely
accused men and freeing them does not make you tough in Texas. It doesn't even earn you points. Only
the blood of someone else does in these circles, and whether the accused is innocent or guilty is of
secondary importance to a gung-ho D.A. Getting his defendant killed is what advances a prosecutor's
career, not exonerating him if evidence is weak or downright falsified.

Some "Christians" in Texas tend to gloss over the "thous shalt not bear false witness" part of the
stuff they mumblingly chanted in Sunday School.

[RagAss]

31. Who? JFK?

[smokey nj]

32. Here's a link to an article on the case from The New Yorker

It's long, but well worth the time it takes to read it. After reading The New Yorker piece and another lengthy article about the case from The Chicago Tribune, I'm convinced of Willingham's innocence.

Here's the link to the Trib. article:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0412090169dec09,0,1173806.story

[rateyes]

33. Texas justice for you:

Execute first, ask questions later.