"WE HAVE NEVER BEEN AN OPPONENT OF THE DEATH PENALTY, AND WE ARE NOT READY TO REJECT CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES. BUT THE MISCARRIAGES OF JUSTICE REVEALED BY THE SPATE OF DNA EXONERATIONS IN TEXAS RAISE GRAVE DOUBTS ABOUT OUR CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM’S ABILITY TO SORT OUT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THOSE WHO COMMIT A CRIME AND THOSE HAPLESS INDIVIDUALS ENSNARED BY BAD POLICE WORK, MISTAKEN EYEWITNESSES, AND PROSECUTORS EAGER TO CONVICT AT ALL COSTS. CAN WE TRUST THE SYSTEM TO CONVICT AND EXECUTE ONLY THE GUILTY AND NOT THE INNOCENT? CAN WE BE SURE OF THAT? NOT ANYMORE."
EDITORIAL; CALLER.COM;
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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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Caller.com's editorial is of interest because it measures the effect that revelations relating to the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham has had on a publication, which has - up to now - supported the death penalty and had confidence in the ability of the Texas criminal justice system to convict only the guilty.
Caller.Com is the Internet edition of Caller-Times, a newspaper in Corpus Christi, Texas which is owned by the Scripps Howard group.
"For the past three years in Texas, news reports have revealed that dozens of innocent people have been convicted of violent crimes they didn’t commit," the editorial begins, under the heading, "Texas justice system has major flaws."
"At least 38 men in Texas spent decades in prison based on wrongful convictions and the state will now make compensation payments for these exonerees," the editorial continues.
"The exonerations in Texas have resulted from the revolution that DNA testing has done for the criminal justice system since 1989. They confirm the fact that something has gone terribly wrong in the prosecution of oh so many cases in Texas.
One DNA exoneree is Thomas McGowan, who will soon be paid $1.8 million by the state for spending 23 years in prison for a rape and robbery he didn’t commit. He wants to use the money to buy a three-bedroom house. McGowan was exonerated last year on the basis of DNA tests.
He is one of 38 DNA exonerees in Texas. Each case is a terrible indictment of the system. James Woodard spent 27 years in prison for a murder that DNA testing confirmed he did not commit; he is due to receive $2.2 million. Steven Phillips spent 24 years in prison for sexual assault and burglary; he will get $1.9 million. Charles Chatman, imprisoned for 26 years for a wrongful conviction of rape, said the money “will bring me some independence. Other people have had a lot of control over my life.”
It is commendable that Texas is trying to compensate these men for the terrible injustice they have suffered. Still, an open question is how could so many innocent men spend years locked up for crimes they didn’t commit? How could the system fail so badly? This is a challenge to our concepts of justice and it will remain a challenge until measures are taken to prevent it from ever happening again.
Even more disturbing is the possibility that the state executed an innocent man. In an article headlined “Trial by Fire,” the current issue of The New Yorker examines in detail the investigation, prosecution and trial of Cameron Todd Willingham, who lived with his family in Corsicana. Willingham was convicted of killing his three young daughters in a house fire caused, fire investigators said, by arson. He was executed in 2004.
When questions arose about the evidence that convicted Willingham, fire experts commissioned by the Innocence Project concluded that the evidence was simply wrong. In 2005, Texas established a commission to investigate error by forensic experts. Willingham’s was one of the first cases reviewed and, as the article reports, the noted fire scientist Craig Beyler concluded in a scathing report that fire investigators in Willingham’s case had no scientific basis for claiming the fire was arson and they ignored evidence that contradicted their theory.
If the state of Texas has not been well-served by its criminal justice system — and 38 DNA exonerees say it has not — then can we be sure that an innocent man was not executed for a crime he didn’t commit? The fact that many innocent people have been convicted and sentenced to prison suggests that innocent people have also been executed. This should warrant another look at the death penalty, not on the basis of moral objections, but on the basis of competence, on whether the system is functioning correctly, beyond that shadow of a doubt.
We have never been an opponent of the death penalty, and we are not ready to reject capital punishment in all circumstances. But the miscarriages of justice revealed by the spate of DNA exonerations in Texas raise grave doubts about our criminal justice system’s ability to sort out the difference between those who commit a crime and those hapless individuals ensnared by bad police work, mistaken eyewitnesses, and prosecutors eager to convict at all costs. Can we trust the system to convict and execute only the guilty and not the innocent? Can we be sure of that? Not anymore."
The editorial can be found at:
http://www.caller.com/news/2009/sep/13/texas-justice-system-has-major-flaws/
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
