Texas Governor Attempts to Cover Up Execution of Innocent Man
John Manning
Cameron Todd Willingham was killed by the state for killing his children
in a fire. Yet the best scientific analysis conclusively establishes
that the fire was accidental and not caused by arson.
Texas Governor Rick Perry, going into a heated primary campaign against
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, has now fired three board members of the
state agency investigating the controversial 2004 execution. The Burnt
Orange Report has excellent coverage here and here.
The conservative editorial board of the Dallas Morning News outlines the
case in very stark terms:
Gov. Rick Perry looks like a desperate man with his decision to
jettison the chairman of the state's forensic science panel.
The panel's post-mortem look at the Cameron Todd Willingham
arson-murder case goes to the heart of Texas justice - including the
governor's role in it - and whether an innocent man was railroaded into
the death chamber at Huntsville.
Since Perry signed off on the Willingham execution in 2004, his own
accountability is at stake. So perhaps it's no surprise that two days
before the Texas Forensic Science Commission was to proceed with the
case this week, Perry replaced the chairman and set things back.
The Willingham case...is disturbingly unusual.
The forensics commission, created on Perry's watch, singled out the
Willingham case as one of its first to assess for flaws. An arson
expert it hired produced a brutal appraisal of the original forensic
work, which concluded that arson was the cause of a house fire in
Corsicana that claimed the lives of Willingham's three young children.
The expert's report ridiculed an investigator in the case as
claiming clairvoyance about the cause of fires. The expert said the
Willingham work was oblivious to investigatory conventions and
overlooked the obvious.
Bottom line, he said, is that the evidence does not support a
finding of arson.
Glenn Smith argues that Perry is in violation of federal law:
He may have violated federal law, U.S.C. 18.1001. This is no
trivial matter. An innocent man was executed. Federal laws and
guidelines are in place to keep that from happening. Perry may well
have violated those laws and guidelines, for which there are criminal
penalties.
Media Matters sums it up:
This is all, at the very least, quite fishy. It's also potentially
earth-shaking -- never before has it been conclusively determined that
someone in this country was wrongfully put to death. If Cameron Todd
Willingham's innocence can be proven, it would upend the entire
rationale behind our system of capital punishment. And yet there hasn't
been a whole lot of media coverage - a Nexis search of all news sources
for the past two days for (cameron w/2 willingham and perry) turned up
seven results.
This could be the beginning of the end for not only one of the most
reactionary governors in the country but for the death penalty itself.
All links here:
http://agonist.org/nat_wilson_turner/20091002/texas_governor_attempts_to_cover_up_execution_of_innocent_man
duke
>
>
>Cameron Todd Willingham was killed by the state for killing his children
>in a fire. Yet the best scientific analysis conclusively establishes
>that the fire was accidental and not caused by arson.
I gather the jury said otherwise.
The Dukester, American-American
*****
"The Mass is the most perfect form of Prayer."
Pope Paul VI
*****
Larry
7x6FvXnZ2dn...@giganews.com:
> Cameron Todd Willingham was killed by the state for killing his children
> in a fire. Yet the best scientific analysis conclusively establishes
> that the fire was accidental and not caused by arson.
>
>
The simplest of solutions will make it all stop, these wrongful convictions
of innocent people......
If any convicted person is subsequently proven innocent, the prosecuting
attorney, the law enforcement officer in charge of the case and the
sentencing judge must all submit to the exact same sentence for the exact
same time that the wrongfully convicted person served, in the exact same
cell or cells in the exact same institution or institutions.....following
the exact sentencing path the wrongfully convicted person as served in
until his release. At that point, all three will be disbarred and removed
from their positions to prevent them from wrongfully convicting any other
person.....no exceptions.
Anyone caught aiding and abetting any kind of coverup or deceit trying to
prevent this action will simply be added to the list and similarly treated,
no matter who that person is.
Problem solved. It'll help keep the ruling class a tiny bit more honest in
who it attacks that don't have the resources to stop it.
Call me when they strap the prosecutor to that table. I wanna watch it.
We got plenty of lawyers to replace him. Look in any phone book.
--
Larry
Noone is safe until the last lawyer has been strangled by the entrails of
the last cleric.....
Just James
> John Manning <jrob...@terra.com.br> wrote in news:Yf2dnZrbU_
> 7x6FvXnZ2dn...@giganews.com:
>
>> Cameron Todd Willingham was killed by the state for killing his children
>> in a fire. Yet the best scientific analysis conclusively establishes
>> that the fire was accidental and not caused by arson.
>>
>>
>
> The simplest of solutions will make it all stop, these wrongful convictions
> of innocent people......
>
> If any convicted person is subsequently proven innocent, the prosecuting
> attorney, the law enforcement officer in charge of the case and the
> sentencing judge must all submit to the exact same sentence for the exact
> same time that the wrongfully convicted person served, in the exact same
> cell or cells in the exact same institution or institutions.....following
> the exact sentencing path the wrongfully convicted person as served in
> until his release. At that point, all three will be disbarred and removed
> from their positions to prevent them from wrongfully convicting any other
> person.....no exceptions.
>
> Anyone caught aiding and abetting any kind of coverup or deceit trying to
> prevent this action will simply be added to the list and similarly treated,
> no matter who that person is.
>
>
I like the idea. Unfortunately, we're humans and make errors. There
would need to be a really high level such as gross negligence on the
part of the authorities.
--
Just James
"I could be chasing an untamed ornithoid without cause." ~ Data
Just James
I heard about this. Perry is a Jackass and needs to go to jail.
Tapestry
> I like the idea. Unfortunately, we're humans and make errors. There
> would need to be a really high level such as gross negligence on the
> part of the authorities.
OK, rollock, were you expecting an atom bomb?
Picasso Renoir Hilton
Picasso Renoir Hilton
wrote:
> On Oct 3, 4:43 pm, Tapestry <estry....@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Oct 3, 4:40 pm, Just James <post_mas...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
> > > I like the idea. Unfortunately, we're humans and make errors. There
> > > would need to be a really high level such as gross negligence on the
> > > part of the authorities.
>
> > OK, rollock, were you expecting an atom bomb?
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THrOEt72rUk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rolfj5MMBbA&NR=1&feature=fvwp
The Chief Instigator
Indeed...and Governor Goodhair should get his ass savaged by the
voters of this state in the upcoming Senate primary next spring.
--
Patrick L. "The Chief Instigator" Humphrey (pat...@io.com) Houston, Texas
www.io.com/~patrick/aeros.php (TCI's 2008-09 Houston Aeros) AA#2273
LAST GAME: Manitoba 4, Houston 3 (October 2)
NEXT GAME: Saturday, October 3 at Manitoba, 7:35