This is about the Willingham arson story I wrote about early last month, in which three different sets of arson investigators came to the conclusion that Todd Willingham had not set the fire that killed his children and for whose murders he was convicted. This meant that Texas had likely executed an innocent man. A new, more encompassing report was supposed to be issued by a Texas commission in 2010. But now there is a rather disturbing piece of news about the fate of that report.
I’ll let Scott Hensen of the Texas Watchdog blog, Grits for Breakfast, tell you:
Outrageous!
It’d be hard to make this up; it seems more like caricature or some tale from days of yore out of Tammany Hall, but it’s actually today’s news: Governor Rick Perry has ousted the head of the Texas Forensic Science Commission, which had displeased him by soliciting what turned out to be damning expert opinion regarding the Cameron Todd Willingham case (in which supposedly expert arson testimony used to convict Willingham and justify his execution was later debunked by modern science). The case has drawn national attention since the release of expert testimony solicited by the commission followed by the publication of a widely cited New Yorker article last month.As the new chair, Perry chose (of all people) Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, who prides himself on being one of the most outspoken proponents among Texas prosecutors of a sort of neoconservative, tough on crime philosophy. The Statesman called Bradley “a tough-on-crime politically connected conservative.” I’ve certainly heard him called worse! 😉 (Hi John!)
Bradley’s first act as chair? To cancel a hearing Friday where the Commission was scheduled to hear a report from experts they’ve paid tens of thousands of dollars to analyze the science behind Todd Willingham’s conviction. No word on whether or if the public hearing might be rescheduled…..
Read the rest here. And the Grits site has plenty of links.
Yikes – I haven’t paid attention to Texas Gov. Rick Perry, but I will now, just to make sure this guy never runs for national office. Bad enough for the people of Texas: firing a professional who doesn’t produce the results he needed to bolster his having likely executed an innocent man. Add to that DA John Bradley, “a politically-connected conservative” – meaning apparently, a partisan prosecutor – whose gung-ho hang ’em and ask questions later (or DON’T ask questions now OR later) might just result in killing an innocent person or two and then joining the Gov in trying to bury the evidence. Still another case where justice isn’t blind, where the people we rely on to carry out justice are more concerned with their own careers, and with their record of “wins.”
Let’s not give Gov. Perry a hard time right now.
This is very disappointing. I should’ve known it was too good to be true that the state of Texas was allowing an investigation into this case. It rang of too much candor. Should’ve known that politics will stomp candor any day of the week.
WBC – look up European Union’s “global surveillance program” on travel – this program was started to combat terrorist but is now also being used to solve criminal related crimes.