STORY: "Editorial: Duty to correct bad arson cases," published by the Dallas Daily News on January 9, 2013.
GIST: "As a fledgling
agency, the Forensic Science Commission took heat for stretching its
authority in 2008 and accepting the Willingham case for review. This
newspaper is glad it did, even though the law creating the commission
didn’t expressly list arson as a forensic science under its purview. The
commission’s final report — while not commenting on Willingham’s guilt
or innocence — said prosecutors relied on arson investigators who had a
poor understanding of fire science and learned their craft when there
were no uniform standards. Those very themes surfaced in the Graf
case, in reports compiled by experts retained by the Innocence Project
of Texas. Prosecutors put Graf away for life after his two stepsons
burned to death in a frame storage shed behind his house. Yet the
state arson investigator had little grasp of how fire burns and employed
“old wives’ tales” in reaching conclusions, one expert wrote. Worse,
there was no “crime scene” to examine, since the burned-up shed had been
knocked down by volunteer firefighters and hauled off to a dump. Graf, at the very least, deserves another day in court. That’s
consistent with one major theme in the Forensic Science Commission’s
final Willingham report. It stressed the “duty to correct” when
investigators become aware of advances in fire science that could
reverse a criminal conviction."
The entire story can be found at:
http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/20130109-editorial-duty-to-correct-bad-arson-cases.ece
Background from the Arson Project with supporting documents:
http://www.thearsonproject.org/cases/cases-graf.html
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses
several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of
the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this
powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and
myself get more out of the site.
The
Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty
incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the
harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into
pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology
system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent
stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html
Please
send any comments or information on other cases and issues of
interest to the readers of this blog to:
hlevy15@gmail.com
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
