Gerald Hurst, the arson expert who blew the whistle in the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, has died. (Radley
Balko blogs about criminal justice, the drug war and civil liberties
for The Washington Post. He is the author of the book "Rise of the
Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces.") From the Innocence Project: Earlier
this week, renowned arson expert Dr. Gerald Hurst died of complications
with a prior liver transplant. Dr. Hurst was an instrumental figure in
driving the state of Texas to reform its once-outdated arson
investigation practices. In early 2004, Dr. Hurst wrote an
in-depth fire investigation report which revealed that the Texas State
Fire Marshal Office’s findings around the Cameron Todd Willingham case
were based on a flawed investigation and outdated science . . . Hurst
disseminated his report to Texas officials—including Texas Governor
Rick Perry—in the days before Willingham’s execution, in hope of getting
officials to grant Willingham clemency, but to no avail. Willingham
was executed by lethal injection in April 2004. The same year
that Willingham was executed, Hurst wrote another report, this time on
the behalf of Ernest Willis, who was on death row after being wrongfully
convicted of setting fire to a house that killed two women. Hurst was
one of the experts who was able to prove that the same faulty arson
science that had been used to help convict Willingham had also been used
in the Willis case. Willis was released and exonerated in 2004 at the
age of 59. Willis said of Hurst’s passing, “I will forever be incredibly grateful to Dr. Hurst. That man helped save my life.” Since then, arson convictions have been falling apart all over the country."
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
Dear Readers. Due to a 'writing' assignment, I will not be filing fresh posts for several weeks. (With the exception of breaking news;) When I am back in action I will make up for lost time with a vengeance. In the meantime, please keep me up to date with developments and don't hesitate to bring new matters of interest to this Blog to my attention at hlevy15@gmail.com.
Best wishes,
Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
PS: For latest coverage of the Mark Lundy retrial go to: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/mark-lundy-murder-retrial
