"IF THERE IS A POWERFUL LESSON THAT COMES OUT OF ALL OF THIS, IT IS THAT A POSTHUMOUS PARDON IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR ENSURING THAT INNOCENT PERSONS ARE NOT WRONGLY CONVICTED AND EXECUTED. IF ONLY COLIN ROSS'S PROSECUTOR HAD AGREED TO THE DEFENCE LAWYER'S REQUEST TO TAKE ANOTHER LOOK AT THE STATE'S FORENSIC EVIDENCE. IF ONLY TEXAS GOVERNOR RICK PERRY HAD HEEDED THE CONTENTS OF A REPORT WHICH SHED DOUBT UPON THE FORENSIC OPINIONS WHICH LED TO CAMERON TODD WILLINGHAM BEING CONVICTED OF MURDER BY ARSON BEFORE ORDERING HIS EXECUTION. WILL WE BE SAYING "IF ONLY THE PROSECUTORS AND THE COURTS HAD AGREED TO HANK SKINNER'S REQUESTS FOR DNA TESTS BEFORE THE STATE SNUFFED OUT HIS LIFE?""
PUBLISHERS NOTE: It's time to wind up the series of posts connecting the Cameron Todd Willingham and Colin Ross cases - which have so much in common even though they occurred almost a century apart at opposite ends of the Globe. To this humble scribe they both involve men who were wrongly executed by a lethal combination of dubious science and dubious, inflammatory evidence from interested parties. (The Ross case was further aggravated by political and media pressure); I was also fascinated by the connection between the Ross case - where his trial lawyer unsuccessfully pleaded with the prosecutor to have crucial forensic evidence tested - and the case of Hank Skinner, who's pleas for DNA tests have been rebuffed even as his February 24th execution date is imminent. My heart goes out to Ross who, is said to have made the following quiet but resolute statement from the scaffold after his last failed appeal: " I am now face to face with my maker, and I swear by almighty God that I am an innocent man. I never saw the child. I never committed the crime, and I don't know who did. I never confessed to anyone. I ask God to forgive those who have sworn my life away, and I pray God to have mercy on my poor darling mother, and my family."(In his farewell letter to his family, Ross wrote that "the day is coming when my innocence will be proved." (Sadly that day came so many decades after the State had so brutally taken away his life.) My heart also goes out to Willingham - whose family had perished so tragically - who also asserted his innocence to the very end. Wikipedia reports that when asked if he had a final statement, before cursing his ex-wife who was about 8 feet away through a window, 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." If there is a powerful lesson that comes out of all of this, it is that a posthumous pardon is no substitute for ensuring that innocent persons are not wrongly convicted and executed. If only Colin Ross's prosecutor had agreed to the defence lawyer's request to take another look at the State's forensic evidence. If only Texas Governor Rick Perry had heeded the contents of a report which shed doubt upon the forensic opinions which led to Cameron Todd Willingham being convicted of murder by arson before ordering his execution. Will we be saying "if only the prosecutors and the Courts had agreed to Hank Skinner's requests for DNA tests before the state snuffed out his life?"
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
