On February 17 February, 2004, Cameron Todd Willingham, 36, was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas for the murder of his three children.
The charge was laid in connection with a fire which occurred on 23 December 1991, at his Corsicana home in which his three children -- 2-year-old Amber Kuykendall and 1-year-old twins Karmon and Kameron Willingham, died of smoke inhalation.
Strong doubts have hovered over Willingham's execution since the Chicago Tribunal ran an investigation of the prosecution which made a compelling case that the fire blaze was an accident;
In a recent development, the Texas Forensic Science Commission hired an expert to review the evidence - in what has been called "the first state-sanctioned inquiry into a Texas execution;"
This Blog will monitor developments in the Willingham case - in view of the fact that Larry Swearingen remains on death row in the State of Texas which apparently boasts that it has never executed an innocent man;
Four pathologists have taken issue with the pathological evidence called by prosecutor's at Swearingen's trial - and contend that the scientific evidence in the case indicates that he could not have committed the crime because he was locked up in prison when it was committed;
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The Cameron Todd Willingham case is the first to be investigated by the newly created Texas Forensic Science Commission;
The following UPI story, which ran on August 15, 2008, under the heading "Texas will re-examine 2004 execution" sheds some useful light on the Commission and why it was created;
"HOUSTON, Aug. 15 (UPI) -- Texas authorities Friday agreed to look into whether the state executed an innocent man when it put Cameron Willingham to death in 2004," the story begins;
"The Texas Forensic Science Commission voted unanimously in Houston to investigate a complaint by the Innocence Project, the Houston Chronicle reported Friday," it continues;
"Innocence Project officials filed a petition in May 2006 asking for a re-examination of the execution, claiming it was based on flawed science.
Texas state Sen. Rodney Ellis said at the time the conviction of Willingham might have been based on a false reading of evidence of the cause of a fire in his home in December 1991. The fire killed Willingham's 1-year-old twins and 2-year-old stepdaughter.
The petitioners said they believed the blaze was more likely an accident. Willingham, who maintained his innocence, was executed Feb. 17, 2004.
The Texas Legislature established the Forensic Science Commission in 2005 following a scandal involving the Houston Police Crime lab and problems associated with other Texas forensic labs, the Chronicle said.
The commission Friday also decided to investigate a case in which a West Texas oilfield worker, Ernest Willis, 63, was sentenced to death in connection with a 1986 arson fire that killed two people."
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
