PASSAGE ONE OF THE DAY: "Evidence of the mistakes and misconduct came to light while Willingham was on death row, but it was not enough to save him because Gov. Rick Perry was unwilling to accept the possibility that law enforcement was wrong. “There is quite overwhelming evidence that proves his innocence but he seems to have had no worth to them,” British actor Jack O'Connell, who plays Willingham, says.
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "In the years after Willingham's death, journalists and the New York-based Innocence Project continued pushing to reveal the truth. “The great tragedy is that the techniques used by the arson investigators highlighted in ‘Trial By Fire’ really had been discredited ten years before Todd was executed,” says Innocence Project co-founder Barry Scheck. “One of the great things they do in the movie is they really lay out visually and clearly what the investigators looked at and got wrong, like the scarring on the floor and ‘crazed’ glass.” “This was absolutely the worst,” adds John Lentini, who wrote the leading scientific book on arson and pioneered efforts to debunk the sort of mistakes made in cases like this one. When Zwick read a New Yorker article about Willingham's case in 2009, he “was in an inchoate rage and knew immediately I wanted to make a film.”
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PASSAGE THREE OF THE DAY: "Things have changed in the Lonestar state, Scheck says the Texas Forensic Science Commission is now one of the best in the country. “The Willingham case really brought these issues of junk forensic science to the forefront and in that context Todd did not die in vain,” Scheck says, although O'Connell adds that “it's just a shame it takes a catastrophe like that to effect change.”
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MOVIE REVIEW: "'Trial by Fire’ and its real life tragedy," an Ed Zwick Film, reviewed by Stuart Miller in the New York Daily News on May 19, 2019.
FROM THE TRIAL BY FIRE WEB PAGE: "The tragic and controversial story of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in Texas for killing his three children after scientific evidence and expert testimony that bolstered his claims of innocence were suppressed."
FROM THE TRIAL BY FIRE WEB PAGE: "The tragic and controversial story of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in Texas for killing his three children after scientific evidence and expert testimony that bolstered his claims of innocence were suppressed."
GIST: "As
“Trial By Fire” opens, an inferno consumes the house of Cameron Todd
Willingham. He races out, briefly tries to get back inside to save his
children, then gives up hope. He is, at that moment, a doomed man. Inside
were Willingham’s three toddlers, who all died in the blaze. Ed Zwick’s
new film recounts the notorious true story of how events spiraled after
this Texas tragedy. Grievous errors by arson investigators led to
Willingham getting charged with arson and murder. Then his defense
lawyer’s apathy and incompetence coupled with the prosecutor’s
misconduct — not to mention a class-driven society that is quick to
blame an outsider — landed Willingham on death row. “He
was from a certain section of society that is deprived of a voice,”
says British actor Jack O'Connell, who portrays Willingham. “This
is about class and poverty as a dividing line,” Zwick says. Just
because Willingham was a hard-drinking, uneducated womanizer, does not
mean he should be deprived of justice, Zwick says. “One of the things
that magnetized me to the story is that he was immediately pegged by
everybody as the 'other,' because of his looks, lack of education and
disreputable behavior.” Evidence
of the mistakes and misconduct came to light while Willingham was on
death row, but it was not enough to save him because Gov. Rick Perry was
unwilling to accept the possibility that law enforcement was wrong. “There is quite overwhelming evidence that proves his innocence but he seems to have had no worth to them,” O'Connell says. In
the years after Willingham's death, journalists and the New York-based
Innocence Project continued pushing to reveal the truth. “The great
tragedy is that the techniques used by the arson investigators
highlighted in ‘Trial By Fire’ really had been discredited ten years
before Todd was executed,” says Innocence Project co-founder Barry
Scheck. “One of the great things they do in the movie is they really lay
out visually and clearly what the investigators looked at and got
wrong, like the scarring on the floor and ‘crazed’ glass.” “This
was absolutely the worst,” adds John Lentini, who wrote the leading
scientific book on arson and pioneered efforts to debunk the sort of
mistakes made in cases like this one. When
Zwick read a New Yorker article about Willingham's case in 2009, he
“was in an inchoate rage and knew immediately I wanted to make a film.”
But while most of his films, like “Glory,” “Blood Diamond” and
“Defiance,” were profitable, getting financing took nearly a decade. Zwick
aimed to focus the movie on the characters and their emotional
journeys. “This is not an institutional lecture. I tend to tell stories
of personal relationships in the context of bigger stories. It's that
juxtapoisiton that interests me.” He
first cast Laura Dern as the writer who takes up Willingham's cause in
his final years of appeals, keeping his hopes and the case alive, at
least temporarily. Then he added O'Connell for his “willingness to
expose the darker colors.” O'Connell worked with dialect coach Tim
Monich to get the right regional Texas accent. While
Zwick briefly shows footage of Perry at the end to hold him accountable
for as he says, “using the death penalty as a political tool.” Things
have changed in the Lonestar state, Scheck says the Texas Forensic
Science Commission is now one of the best in the country. “The
Willingham case really brought these issues of junk forensic science to
the forefront and in that context Todd did not die in vain,” Scheck
says, although O'Connell adds that “it's just a shame it takes a
catastrophe like that to effect change.” Not
everyone is moving fast enough, including New York, says Adele
Bernhard, an attorney who represented one of three men who were
wrongfully convicted of arson and murder in a Park Slope fire that
killed a mother and five children. William
Vasquez and Amaury Villalobos spent 33 years behind bars for torching
695 Sackett St. in February 1980. The third man, Raymond Mora, died in
prison in 1989. The woman who owned townhouse told police the trio set the fire because she had an ongoing drug beef with one of them. When
Vasquez and Villalobos were paroled in 2012, Villalobos approached
Bernhard, a law professor and director of the Post-Conviction Innocence
Clinic to work on his case. The homeowner, Hannah Quick, admitted she
lied about the men’s involvement. With
Quick’s confession and the evidence of arson used by a fire marshal at
the time of their 1981 conviction long since scientifically reputed, the
men were exonerated in 2015. They were later awarded $31 million."
PUBLISHER'S
NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the
Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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/c
