"THESE CONVICTIONS OCCUR BECAUSE JURIES BELIEVE THE FIRE INVESTIGATORS WHO PRETEND TO BE SCIENTISTS, BUT WHO DO NOT EVEN POSSESS A MINIMAL SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION. THE REASON THAT THESE INDIVIDUALS ARE ALLOWED TO PRACTICE AS FIRE INVESTIGATORS IS THAT WE, AS A SOCIETY, HAVE ASKED THEM TO DO SO, AND HAVE REFUSED TO OFFER SUFFICIENT SALARIES TO ATTRACT COLLEGE GRADUATES.THE AVERAGE FIRE INVESTIGATOR IS A FORMER FIREMAN, WHO HAS STUDIED CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS IN HIGH SCHOOL. DON'T GET ME WRONG. THESE GUYS ARE HEROES, BUT THE SKILL SET REQUIRED TO EXTINGUISH A FIRE IS A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SKILL SET FROM THAT REQUIRED TO INVESTIGATE IT. AS FIREFIGHTERS, THESE INDIVIDUALS ALWAYS SUCCEEDED IN PUTTING OUT THE FIRE. THEY DEVELOPED A MINDSET THAT DID NOT ALLOW FOR FAILURE, AND CONSEQUENTLY, WHEN THE EVIDENCE REQUIRED THAT A FIRE BE CALLED "UNDETERMINED," THESE INDIVIDUALS WERE UNWILLING TO MAKE THAT CALL."
FIRE INVESTIGATOR JOHN LENTINI: SCIENCE INSIDER;
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Background: (Wikipedia); Cameron Todd Willingham (January 9, 1968 – February 17, 2004), born in Carter County, Oklahoma, was sentenced to death by the state of Texas for murdering his three daughters—two year old Amber Louise Kuykendall, and one year old twins Karmon Diane Willingham and Kameron Marie Willingham— by setting his house on fire. The fire occurred on December 23, 1991 in Corsicana, Texas. Lighter fluid was kept on the front porch of Willingham’s house as evidenced by a melted container found there. Some of this fluid may have entered the front doorway of the house carried along by fire hose water. It was alleged this fluid was deliberately poured to start the fire and that Willingham chose this entrance way so as to impede rescue attempts. The prosecution also used other arson theories that have since been brought into question. In addition to the arson evidence, a jailhouse informant claimed Willingham confessed that he set the fire to hide his wife's physical abuse of the girls, although the girls showed no other injuries besides those caused by the fire. Neighbors also testified that Willingham did not try hard enough to save his children. They allege he "crouched down" in his front yard and watched the house burn for a period of time without attempting to enter the home or go to neighbors for help or request they call firefighters. He claimed that he tried to go back into the house but it was "too hot". As firefighters arrived, however, he rushed towards the garage and pushed his car away from the burning building, requesting firefighters do the same rather than put out the fire. After the fire, Willingham showed no emotion at the death of his children and spent the next day sorting through the debris, laughing and playing music. He expressed anger after finding his dartboard burned in the fire. Firefighters and other witnesses found him suspicious of how he reacted during and after the fire. Willingham was charged with murder on January 8, 1992. During his trial in August 1992, he was offered a life term in exchange for a guilty plea, which he turned down insisting he was innocent. After his conviction, he and his wife divorced. She later stated that she believed that Willingham was guilty. Prosecutors alleged this was part of a pattern of behavior intended to rid himself of his children. Willingham had a history of committing crimes, including burglary, grand larceny and car theft. There was also an incident when he beat his pregnant wife over the stomach with a telephone to induce a miscarriage. When asked if he had a final statement, Willingham said: "Yeah. The only statement I want to make is that I am an innocent man - convicted of a crime I did not commit. I have been persecuted for 12 years for something I did not do. From God's dust I came and to dust I will return - so the earth shall become my throne. I gotta go, road dog. I love you Gabby." However, his final words were directed at his ex-wife, Stacy Willingham. He turned to her and said "I hope you rot in hell, bitch" several times while attempting to extend his middle finger in an obscene gesture. His ex-wife did not show any reaction to this. He was executed by lethal injection on February 17, 2004. Subsequent to that date, persistent questions have been raised as to the accuracy of the forensic evidence used in the conviction, specifically, whether it can be proven that an accelerant (such as the lighter fluid mentioned above) was used to start the fatal fire. Fire investigator Gerald L. Hurst reviewed the case documents including the trial transcriptions and an hour-long videotape of the aftermath of the fire scene. Hurst said, "There's nothing to suggest to any reasonable arson investigator that this was an arson fire. It was just a fire."
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ScienceInsider's interview with fire investigator John Lentini ran on September 14, 2009, under the heading, "Forensic Science on Trial: The First of Two ScienceInsider Interviews," by Eli Kintisch.
"In February, a landmark report by the National Research Council (NRC) in February criticized nearly every aspect of the nation's forensics science system, including unreliable techniques for analyzing hair and DNA samples—a problem the U.S. Senate has been addressing in recent hearings," the article containing the interview begins.
"But the NRC report said almost nothing about arson. So ScienceInsider conducted an email interview with John Lentini (left), a nationally known fire investigator who conducted an outside review of the controversial case of Todd Willingham, a convicted arsonist who was executed in 2004," the article continues.
"Tomorrow, we will run an interview with Jay Siegel, a scientist who served on the NRC panel.
Q: What went wrong in Texas, and why? How widespread are such flaws in supposedly scientific forensic investigations?
J.L.: The only thing unique about Texas with respect to miscarriages of justice stemming from faulty arson convictions is that Texas is a profligate user of the death penalty, making it impossible to take back its harshest punishment. Actually, there are wrongful convictions for arson all over the United States. Because there is no DNA involved, and because the investigators only document the scene to the extent necessary to "prove" arson, it is exceedingly difficult to obtain a reversal of a wrongful conviction.
Most fire investigators were trained by mentors who were trained by mentors, who passed on belief systems based on anecdotal experience rather than on chemistry and physics.
Mr. Willingham's lawyers walked through the burned residence in Corsicana and were able to see the "pour patterns" on the floor. These were irregular areas of burning caused by the irregular nature of fire. In addition to the pour patterns, the fire investigators also saw evidence of "high temperatures at floor level," such as melted aluminum.
These investigators held the belief that fire burns up, and should not achieve temperatures equal to the melting point of aluminum at floor level. They're simply wrong. Fully involved compartments frequently achieve temperatures close to 2000°F at floor level, more than enough to melt aluminum. For some reason, fire investigators have adopted the notion that accelerated fires burn at higher temperatures than unaccelerated fires, where there is, in fact, no evidence to support this belief. It is, however, like most fire investigation myths, an appealing notion.
The same is true of the phenomenon known as crazed glass. No less an authority than the National Bureau of Standards [now called the National Institute of Standards and Technology] once published a Fire Investigation Handbook that came right out and said that craze class was an indicator of "rapid heating," though they never defined what they meant by "rapid." Actually, crazed glass only occurs when hot glass is rapidly cooled, but that did not stop many investigators from using this discredited indicator to send innocent citizens to prison.
There are numerous other myths involving artifacts found after fires, including spalled concrete, shiny alligator blisters, annealed bedsprings, and the "normal" angle of a V-shaped pattern. All of these myths were once taught as gospel by the National Fire Academy, which trained most of the fire investigators working in the public sector today. All of these myths have been debunked in the peer-reviewed literature since 1992, but a surprisingly robust rearguard of fire investigators has resisted accepting the loss of the "tools" that they use to determine fire causes and obtain convictions.
These convictions occur because juries believe the fire investigators who pretend to be scientists, but who do not even possess a minimal scientific education. The reason that these individuals are allowed to practice as fire investigators is that we, as a society, have asked them to do so, and have refused to offer sufficient salaries to attract college graduates.
The average fire investigator is a former fireman, who has studied chemistry and physics in high school. Don't get me wrong. These guys are heroes, but the skill set required to extinguish a fire is a completely different skill set from that required to investigate it. As firefighters, these individuals always succeeded in putting out the fire. They developed a mindset that did not allow for failure, and consequently, when the evidence required that a fire be called "undetermined," these individuals were unwilling to make that call.
Q: Is there something particularly challenging about arson investigations?
J.L.: One of the skills that is taught to fire investigators is a skill that just about anyone can learn—the ability to testify convincingly. This is easy to do when the witness believes what he is saying and believes that he has got the right suspect, even if the fire was an accident. Juries have no way of knowing that some of these determinations could have been more credibly made with a Ouija board.
Q: How would you fix the system?
J.L.: Since 2000, there has been a growing acceptance by the fire investigation community of the need for scientifically based determinations, and there have been a remarkable number of experts excluded from testifying in civil cases. Unfortunately, in criminal cases, exclusions of government experts are so rare as to make headlines. Judges do not have the skills to be gatekeepers when the question is one of science. The real gatekeepers in arson cases are the prosecutors.
One way to avoid wrongful convictions would be to hold the state responsible for proving beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime was actually committed before being allowed to introduce evidence of guilt. Most people wrongfully convicted are not pillars of the community, and it is not hard to get a jury to dislike them. If the first 2 weeks of an arson trial are about character assassination, then by the time the state presents its weak science, the jury doesn't care. Mr. Willingham was unfortunate in that his lawyers did not believe he was innocent, and did not put on an effective defense.
Ernest Willis was convicted of arson [in Texas] and sent to death row on almost identical evidence, but he had the "good fortune" of having such an ineffective lawyer that even the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals was forced to admit that he did not get a fair trial.
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report focused narrowly on "pattern evidence," which is usually used to associate the defendant with a crime scene. Very little mention was made of forensic science disciplines that answer the question, "What happened?" Fire investigation was mentioned in a single line. One can hope that when the Congress looks at the issues raised by the NAS report, they do not feel constrained to stay within its narrow scope when attempting to strengthen forensic science."
The article can be found at:
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2009/09/forensic-scienc.html
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com
