"Beyler insisted Friday the cause of the fire should have been listed as undetermined.
"I haven't changed my opinion in the year and a half since I wrote the report," he said.
Bradley said he wasn't quibbling with Beyler's opinion but said he believed the investigators "did the best they could given standards at the time."
"I think we'll differ on that," Beyler responded.
DeHaan also said the fire should have been ruled as undetermined, acknowledged investigative techniques have changed in the past two decades and that no consistent uniform standards for arson investigations existed then.
He insisted, however, "You have no basis for concluding this was an arson.""
REPORTER MICHAEL GRACZYK; THE ASSOCIATED PRESS;
(SEE CNN REPORT OF THE MEETING FOLLOWING THE ASSOCIATED PRESS STORY;)
"Bradley is a district attorney known as a hard-liner in capital cases. He told state legislators shortly after his appointment that he was not a "political pawn," but said the commission should not become a platform for opponents of the death penalty.
The commission took up the case at the request of Willingham's family and the Innocence Project. The New York-based nonprofit has pushed policy reforms aimed at exonerating people it believes were wrongfully convicted of crimes, and recently helped secure the freedom of another Texas convict who had spent 30 years behind bars for robbery before DNA evidence exonerated him."
CNN;
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BACKGROUND: (Wikipedia); Cameron Todd Willingham (January 9, 1968 – February 17, 2004), born in Carter County, Oklahoma, was sentenced to death by the state of Texas for murdering his three daughters—two year old Amber Louise Kuykendall, and one year old twins Karmon Diane Willingham and Kameron Marie Willingham— by setting his house on fire. The fire occurred on December 23, 1991 in Corsicana, Texas. Lighter fluid was kept on the front porch of Willingham’s house as evidenced by a melted container found there. Some of this fluid may have entered the front doorway of the house carried along by fire hose water. It was alleged this fluid was deliberately poured to start the fire and that Willingham chose this entrance way so as to impede rescue attempts. The prosecution also used other arson theories that have since been brought into question. In addition to the arson evidence, a jailhouse informant claimed Willingham confessed that he set the fire to hide his wife's physical abuse of the girls, although the girls showed no other injuries besides those caused by the fire. Neighbors also testified that Willingham did not try hard enough to save his children. They allege he "crouched down" in his front yard and watched the house burn for a period of time without attempting to enter the home or go to neighbors for help or request they call firefighters. He claimed that he tried to go back into the house but it was "too hot". As firefighters arrived, however, he rushed towards the garage and pushed his car away from the burning building, requesting firefighters do the same rather than put out the fire. After the fire, Willingham showed no emotion at the death of his children and spent the next day sorting through the debris, laughing and playing music. He expressed anger after finding his dartboard burned in the fire. Firefighters and other witnesses were suspicious of how he reacted during and after the fire. Willingham was charged with murder on January 8, 1992. During his trial in August 1992, he was offered a life term in exchange for a guilty plea, which he turned down insisting he was innocent. After his conviction, he and his wife divorced. She later stated that she believed that Willingham was guilty. Prosecutors alleged this was part of a pattern of behavior intended to rid himself of his children. Willingham had a history of committing crimes, including burglary, grand larceny and car theft. There was also an incident when he beat his pregnant wife over the stomach with a telephone to induce a miscarriage. When asked if he had a final statement, Willingham said: "Yeah. The only statement I want to make is that I am an innocent man - convicted of a crime I did not commit. I have been persecuted for 12 years for something I did not do. From God's dust I came and to dust I will return - so the earth shall become my throne. I gotta go, road dog. I love you Gabby." However, his final words were directed at his ex-wife, Stacy Willingham. He turned to her and said "I hope you rot in hell, bitch" several times while attempting to extend his middle finger in an obscene gesture. His ex-wife did not show any reaction to this. He was executed by lethal injection on February 17, 2004. Subsequent to that date, persistent questions have been raised as to the accuracy of the forensic evidence used in the conviction, specifically, whether it can be proven that an accelerant (such as the lighter fluid mentioned above) was used to start the fatal fire. Fire investigator Gerald L. Hurst reviewed the case documents including the trial transcriptions and an hour-long videotape of the aftermath of the fire scene. Hurst said, "There's nothing to suggest to any reasonable arson investigator that this was an arson fire. It was just a fire. Legendary "Innocence" lawyer Barry Scheck asked participants at a conference of the National Association of Criminal Defence Lawyers held in Toronto in August, 2010, how Willingham, who had lost his family to the fire, must have felt to hear the horrific allegations made against him on the basis of the bogus evidence, "and nobody pays any attention to it as he gets executed." "It's the Dreyfus Affair, and you all know what that is," Scheck continued. "It's the Dreyfus AffaIr of the United States. Luke Power's music video "Texas Death Row Blues," can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2010/09/cameron-todd-willingham-texas-death-row_02.html
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AUSTIN, TEXAS; "The execution of a Texas man for the deaths of his three small children in a house fire came under renewed scrutiny Friday as a state panel heard from arson experts who reviewed the evidence that sent Cameron Todd Willingham to the death chamber seven years ago," the Associated Press story by reporter Michael Graczyk published earlier today under the heading, "Texas panel re-examines arson execution case," begins.
"The Texas Forensic Science Commission invited the fire experts to testify amid the Innocence Project's insistence that Willingham was convicted with faulty evidence and wrongly executed for setting a 1991 fire that killed his three daughters - a 2-year-old and 1-year-old twins. The New York-based organization specializes in wrongful conviction cases," the story continues.
"Prosecutors in Corsicana, about 60 miles south of Dallas, have insisted Willingham's conviction and execution were proper, and the State Fire Marshal's Office has stood behind the arson finding.
Two of the arson experts who testified were critical of the initial investigation into the fire, while two other defended it. The state fire marshal that was the lead investigator in the Willingham case has since died.
"In order to conclude fire was arson, you have to conclusively eliminate accidental and other causes," said John DeHaan, a California expert. "And that was not done in this case."
No so, Ed Salazar, assistant director of the Texas Fire Marshal's Office, told the commission.
"They followed the protocol'," he said. "They followed the practices being used at the time."
Willingham was convicted in 1992 of capital murder, and testimony from fire investigators was the primary evidence against Willingham in his original trial. The defense did not present a fire expert because the one hired by Willingham's attorney also said the fire was caused by arson.
Willingham always maintained his innocence, including in his final statement from the death chamber gurney - an obscenity-filled diatribe aimed at his ex-wife. She has said he confessed his guilt to her when she met with him days before his execution, but Innocence Project lawyers say her story has changed over the years.
Death penalty opponents have aimed to have the Willingham case become the first one in which a prisoner was formally declared wrongfully put to death.
Another one of the arson experts who testified Friday was Craig Beyler of Baltimore, who is among several experts who have challenged the conclusion that arson caused the fire. The chairman of the International Association of Fire Safety Science and one of the foremost experts in the field, Beyler wrote in a 2009 report that investigators didn't follow standards in place in 1991 and didn't have enough evidence to make an arson finding.
He was scheduled to testify before the commission in 2009, but commission chairman John Bradley canceled that meeting in an effort to close the case and have the panel conclude investigators didn't commit professional misconduct in the case. Other members of the commission rebuffed Bradley's efforts, leading to Friday's hearing.
Beyler insisted Friday the cause of the fire should have been listed as undetermined.
"I haven't changed my opinion in the year and a half since I wrote the report," he said.
Bradley said he wasn't quibbling with Beyler's opinion but said he believed the investigators "did the best they could given standards at the time."
"I think we'll differ on that," Beyler responded.
DeHaan also said the fire should have been ruled as undetermined, acknowledged investigative techniques have changed in the past two decades and that no consistent uniform standards for arson investigations existed then.
He insisted, however, "You have no basis for concluding this was an arson."
"They should have evaluated the scene as it was found and looked at each potential fuel package in room," he said. "Based on the evaluation of what I saw, there was no evaluation. It was just shoveled out."
Salazar disputed the assertion.
He said from his review of the case, the investigators began looking at the culmination of evidence and "all the various indicators they have found." There was no specific written standard procedure but "there was, in fact, a standard that was acceptable protocol, using procedures, understanding, training they received."
"And they followed it and wrote the report and came to their conclusion," Salazar said.
Thomas Wood from the Houston Fire Department also said he found no evidence of negligence.
"I think there were fire indicators there that are still looked at as proof of possible incendiary fire," he said.
The forensic commission's involvement became politically charged after Republican Gov. Rick Perry removed three members in 2009, days before they were to review reports casting doubt on Willingham's guilt. Bradley has been an ally for Perry in trying to close the inquiry.
The Innocence Project has objected that two arson investigators who testified on its behalf at an October court of inquiry about the Willingham case, Gerald Hurst and John Lentini, were "notably absent" among investigators the commission invited to Friday's meeting.
The October hearing was cut short by an appeals court after prosecutors successfully challenged the objectivity of the judge holding it because he'd received an award from an organization that opposes the death penalty.
Additional discussion about the case was expected when the panel holds its regular meeting later in the month. Bradley said the board had no authority and could only write a report of its findings."
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The story can be found at:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2013871505_apustexasexecutionarson.html
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CNN REPORT ON THE MEETING:
(CNN) -- His testimony delayed for more than a year, an arson expert Friday sharply criticized the investigation that led to the 2004 execution of a man convicted of killing his three daughters in a house fire.
Craig Beyler has written that the finding of arson at the heart of Cameron Todd Willingham's murder conviction "could not be sustained," either by modern science or by the standards of the day.
"The basics of (this) investigation is such that you could not come to the conclusion that there were arsons, they are undetermined," Beyler, a Maryland-based fire science expert, told the Texas Forensic Science Commission on Friday, according to CNN affiliate KVUE.
"By their acknowledgment, child fire setting, somebody else coming in and setting the fire, are things they acknowledge were not ruled out," said Beyler. "And in this case, they shoveled out the bedroom in the Willingham case before examining the electrical evidence, so you can't rule that out as a cause."
Beyler was originally slated to lay out his findings to the commission in October 2009, but the hearing was put off after a controversial shakeup of the panel by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who signed off on Willingham's execution.
Beyler testified Friday that the 1991 fire should not have been ruled an arson until all other causes were ruled out, KVUE said.
Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, named by Perry as chairman of the commission during the 2009 shakeup, said that re-examining the case could amount to dangerous second-guessing.
"Looking back at people with a lack of information can be dangerous," he said, KVUE reported.
The commission also heard from John DeHaan, a California arson expert and author of a leading arson investigation textbook; Thomas Wood, a senior arson investigator for the Houston Fire Department; and Ed Salazar, the assistant state fire marshal.
DeHaan told the commission in a written statement that investigators in the Willingham case "relied on investigative methods and indicators that have been shown to be unreliable," but that their methods were "typical of investigations carried out at that time." And Wood told the commission that investigators were using the standard of practice that existed in Texas at the time of the 1991 fire, and that the standards now used were not adopted until nearly four years later.
The commission made no decisions Friday.
Willingham's daughters -- 2-year-old Amber and 1-year-old twins Karmon and Kameron -- died in the December 1991 blaze in Corsicana, south of Dallas. He was put to death in February 2004 after his appeals were exhausted, insisting in his final statement that he was innocent.
Two previous reviews of the evidence by forensic experts -- including one completed shortly before Willingham's execution -- have sharply criticized the conclusions of arson investigators who determined the fire was deliberately set. The authors of those reports, Gerald Hurst and John Lentini, were not on Friday's witness list, but have submitted written statements attacking the findings of investigators at the time.
But authorities in Corsicana have stood by the conviction, insisting that other evidence showed Willingham was responsible for the fatal blaze. Perry, who allowed the execution to go forward, has called Willingham a "monster" and reaffirmed his belief in the dead man's guilt.
Beyler's report was commissioned by the Forensic Science Commission and delivered in August 2009. The commission has been looking into the execution since 2008.
"The investigators had poor understandings of fire science and failed to acknowledge or apply the contemporaneous understanding of the limitations of fire indicators," it concluded. "Their methodologies did not comport with the scientific method or the process of elimination."
In October, Willingham's ex-wife, Stacy Kuykendall, said Willingham had confessed to her in the days before his execution that he had started the fatal fire. But Willingham never publicly admitted guilt, and his family has questioned Kuykendall's account of the confession.
Beyler's appearance was delayed by more than 16 months after Perry shook up the commission in 2009. The governor rejected calls to reappoint the panel's then-chairman and three other members who had voted to launch the Willingham investigation, leading to complaints that he was trying to squelch the investigation.
Bradley ordered a sweeping review of the commission's mandate and procedures after taking office and has been sharply criticized by the Innocence Project for calling Willingham "a guilty monster" -- language that echoed Perry's.
Bradley is a district attorney known as a hard-liner in capital cases. He told state legislators shortly after his appointment that he was not a "political pawn," but said the commission should not become a platform for opponents of the death penalty.
The commission took up the case at the request of Willingham's family and the Innocence Project. The New York-based nonprofit has pushed policy reforms aimed at exonerating people it believes were wrongfully convicted of crimes, and recently helped secure the freedom of another Texas convict who had spent 30 years behind bars for robbery before DNA evidence exonerated him.
Willingham's family has also asked a judge to posthumously declare Willingham innocent based on the evidence amassed since his trial. A state district judge in Austin opened a hearing into that request in October, but it was quickly halted by an appeals court after prosecutors in Corsicana demanded he recuse himself from the case.
The appellate court found the judge should have either stepped aside or referred the matter to the district court's presiding judge for a decision, halting proceedings until a new judge can be picked. Willingham's cousin, Pat Cox, called the decision "an obstacle but not a lost battle."
"Someone is going to be held accountable for Todd's death, and well they should," she told CNN on Thursday.
The CNN story can be found at:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/01/07/texas.willingham.commission/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: 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 accessed at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith
For a breakdown of some of the cases, issues and controversies this Blog is currently following, please turn to:
http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=120008354894645705&postID=8369513443994476774
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;
