Cameron Todd Willingham: Reporter Paul Thornton says now that the last piece of evidence has been discredited Willingham's ghost won't stop haunting Governor Rick Perry. LA Times

COMMENTARY: "Cameron Todd Willingham's ghost won't stop haunting Rick Perry," by reporter Paul Thornton, published by the LA Times on August 4, 2014.

SUB-HEADING:  "The last piece of evidence used to convict Cameron Todd Willingham has been thoroughly discredited.  Judging by Rick Perry's actions so far, he seems wholly unconcerned that Texas likely executed an innocent man

Rick Perry’s Cameron Todd Willingham problem won’t go away. In fact, it got worse this week."

GIST: "Perry wasn’t governor during Willingham’s prosecution, which relied heavily on the testimony of a jailhouse informant and forensic evidence produced by arson investigators. But he was governor in 2004, when a noted arson expert and scientist sent him a report concluding there was no evidence that the fire was set intentionally and that the evidence used to convict Willingham amounted to “junk science.”.........Comes now a new report by the Washington Post that thoroughly discredits the final remaining piece of evidence used to convict Willingham: testimony by jailhouse informant Johnny Webb, who had said Willingham admitted his guilt while behind bars. The prosecutor who secured Willingham’s conviction had insisted that he made no deal to persuade the informant to testify. But, according to a lengthy paper trail and the informant himself, Webb was indeed coaxed to testify against Willingham. We already knew the deck was stacked against Willingham after his conviction; what the Post’s chilling report reveals is that the fix was in beforehand. None of the evidence used to send Willingham to the lethal injection gurney was credible; the longer Perry and his state continue to deny this, the more the case against Willingham will continue to unravel without their help. Perry is not running for reelection as governor of Texas, raising the likelihood that he’s preparing a 2016 campaign for the White House. Judging by his finger-in-the-ears reaction to the questions over Willingham’s guilt so far, either Perry is amorally unconcerned about sending an innocent man to his death, or he’s so unsettled by the implications of a posthumous exoneration that he resorts to denial in the face of overwhelming evidence. I hope it’s the latter, which at least leaves open the possibility that some prolonged media exposure in parts of the country less at ease with capital punishment — and disgusted by the botched killings of late that have soiled lethal injection’s sterility — might make Perry’s candidacy historic in ways he never intended."

The entire story can be found at:

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-cameron-todd-willingham-rick-perry-execution-20140806-story.html

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: 

Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
 
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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.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html
 
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Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;