STORY: "Old arson cases reviewed in Texas: Is Douglas Boyington an innocent man?," by reporter Tim Stelloh, published by NBC News on November 20, 2013.
PHOTO CAPTION: "Douglas
Boyington sits behind a plexiglass window in the Goree Unit of the
Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas, on Oct. 15, 2013.
Boyington is currently serving a 75-year prison sentence in connection
to a 1988 fire at a Pasadena, Texas, apartment building."
GIST: "In a recent interview at the state penitentiary in Huntsville,
Boyington, 57, said what he always has — that he was at a nearby bar
celebrating his birthday when the fire broke out. “I'm innocent,” he
said. Now, an alliance between two unlikely partners — the state fire
marshal and the Innocence Project of Texas — may help prove him right. When
Boyington was convicted, fire investigation was still a largely
unscientific endeavor. Experts now know that widely accepted standards
for what was considered clear evidence of arson — for example, that
black smoke and chipped and discolored concrete, or “spalling,”
indicated that a fire was set using an accelerant — were based on flawed
interpretations of how fires behave. “There was no science,” said John
DeHaan, who has written several editions of the seminal text book,
Kirk's Fire Investigations.In Texas, the state fire marshal's
office and the Innocence Project of Texas, a nonprofit dedicated to
exonerating wrongfully convicted people, are now reviewing old cases
where unsound methods may have helped secure a conviction. Such a
partnership is unprecedented, and it is transforming the relationship
between science and the law, helping turn Texas into “a model” for the
country, as DeHaan put it. “Nobody in the criminal justice system wants
to look back at these cases to see if they've made a mistake,” he said. Like
DNA testing, which has helped exonerate hundreds of innocent people who
were convicted of crimes since 1989, re-examining arson cases could
have broad implications. “This truly is the future of innocence work,”
said Jeff Blackburn, the founder of the Innocence Project of Texas......... The inquiry into Boyington's case began last year, after the Texas Forensic Science Commission completed an
exhaustive report
on the investigations into two deadly fires that helped convict and
sentence to death two men, Cameron Todd Willingham in 1992 and Ernest
Ray Willis in 1987. In 2004, Willingham, who had been charged with
setting the fire that killed his three daughters, was executed; Willis
was exonerated. The report revealed that the cases against them relied
on a host of indicators that were once accepted signs of arson, but
which science had disproven..........In Boyington's case, the fire marshal's advisory
group concluded that the investigation that helped put him in prison
did not meet modern scientific standards. The presence of spalled
concrete in the apartment building did not mean that an accelerant had
been used, the panel concluded. Nor did samples taken from the scene in
1988 indicate the use of an ignitable liquid. The panel also found
that there was a failure to account for how the apartment building was
built — with the shaft containing the electric lines and water pipes in
its center core. Pasadena Fire Marshal David Brannon said that such
construction was no longer allowed in the city. "There is nothing to
impede the growth of fire," he said. Based on the advisory group’s
findings in the Boyington case, Connealy wrote a letter this summer to
the Harris County District Attorney saying that the fire could no longer
be considered arson. “The cause of the fire should be listed as
undetermined,” Connealy wrote. "
The entire story can be found at:
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11/20/21370404-old-arson-cases-reviewed-in-texas-is-douglas-boyington-an-innocent-man?lite
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
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
I look forward to hearing from readers at:
hlevy15@gmail.com
