TheLoop21.com

By: Devona Walker (Add to your loop)
Fri, 10/16/2009 - 11:38

Gov. Rick Perry is under fire for possibly allowing an innocent man to die.

Forensic experts, looking into the possible wrongful conviction of a deathrow inmate in Texas, were suddenly and apparently without cause, fired by Gov. Rick Perry. Within days, that man, Cameron Todd Willingham, was put to death.

Back in 1991 Willingham’s three young daughters were killed in a house fire in the middle of the afternoon. Willingham’s trial lasted all of two days in which he was convicted and sentenced to death for the crime. During the trial, and since, he has maintained his innocence. He never waivered even when his defense attorneys and family told him the prosecutors had an air-tight case and that the only way to avoid death was to plead guilty. Even in the moments before his execution, he penned a letter proclaiming he was wrongfully accused.

But his words fells on deaf ears, actually the more he professed his innocence, the more prosecutors believed he was an unrepentant killer. 

“This is like the Saturday night massacre,” Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck said. “The Commission, doing the job the Legislature intended it to, appointed an independent arson expert to examine the reliability of arson evidence in the case of Cameron Todd Willingham."

Before they could finish their review, those commissioners were replaced. Shortly after, the forensic expert looking into the case was terminated. This abrupt change in personnel was a direct order from Perry, who is currently in the midst of a very tight race against Kay Bailey Hutchinson for his office. Willingham was executed only days before the commission was scheduled to hear critical evidence that cast some doubts over his conviction. Experts say there is solid evidence that the housefire may have been an accident.

"This testimony would have raised serious questions about whether Texas was about to execute an innocent man,” Scheck said. “But rather than let this important hearing go forward and the report be heard, the Governor fires the independent Chairman and two other members of this Commission. It’s like Nixon firing Archibald Cox to avoid turning over the Watergate tapes."

More than 400 convictions have been overturned thanks in large part to the Innocence Project. Many of those folks later exonerated by DNA evidence were on death row at the time of their exoneration. On average, the Innocence Project reports that wrongfully convicted people spend about 12 years in prison before their convictions are overturned.

According to Calif. Innocence Project's Jeff Chinn, the group routinely experiences resistence when investigating possible wrongful convictions. Local district attorneys often arbitrarily deny requests to test DNA in post-conviction cases. In general, law enforcement does not want to jeopardize the finality of criminal verdicts. Then, even when tests are allowed, often times the original evidence is either missing or compromised. Chinn believes these prevailing facts, added with a lack of manpower and funding ensure only a fraction of the innocent go free.

“How rampant is the problem? We don’t know,” Chinn said. “There are flaws in the way that identifications are done. There are flaws in the way that investigations are done.”

Willingham’s case is particularly troubling because even law enforcement believed he may have been wrongfully convicted. State-appointed commissioners were looking into his case, not just victim advocates.

Was Willingham’s execution politically motivated?

In response to numerous news reports, which include exhaustive reporting at the Dallas Morning News and the New Yorker magazine, Gov. Perry has said the dismissal of the committee members was simply standard business as usual.

But one of those folks dismissed said he heard personally from Perry’s staff that the governor was concerned about the investigation they were conducting. 

"In my view, we should not fail to investigate important forensic issues in cases simply because there might be political ramifications," Bassett told the Dallas Morning News. 

Devona Walker is TheLoop21.com's senior political and financial reporter. She has worked for The Associated Press and the New York Times regional newspaper group. 

Do you support the death penalty?

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Depends on the crime

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