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| Above Frontline's examination
of the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham, approved by then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry, despite compelling evidence that neither he, nor anyone else, set the fatal fire of which he was accused. |
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| Logo by Patricia Turner for the Texas Moratorium Network |
John Lentini, Arson Expert:
The Beyler report is point for point a confirmation of the original Hurst report that all 20 of the indicators were wrong. The State of Texas executed a man for a crime that they couldn't prove was really a crime and the evidence said "This is an accidental fire." And if it was an accidental fire, it doesn't matter how many posters of Iron Maiden Cameron Rodd Willingham had on his wall or Led Zepplin or whether he liked to play darts or drink beer or whether he smacked his wife around. It only matters that the fire was not really a set fire.Sam Bassett, former chairman, Texas Forensic Science Commission, fired by Gov. Rick Perry:
"If we make a mistake, are we going to learn from it or are we going to sweep it under the rug and act like nothing happened?"
I read David Grann's article in the New Yorker and I'm watching the Front Line program about it right this minute -- what a travesty. This kind of injustice makes you sick, and the fact that it was preventable, that an innocent man was put to death based on political maneuvering -- I can't imagine what Willingham went through. In the end, it wouldn't be surprising that he went to his death willingly, unable to imagine living in a world where ignorance, apathy and plain old lies govern your fate, a world where innocence counts for nothing and the truth is irrelevant to the outcome. Kafka couldn't have written a sicker, more ludicrous plot than this one that took place in Texas in a time when science could have saved a man if his executioners had been righteous -- if those who could have saved him been willing to care that justice was truly done. Instead, they wanted a spectacle, and we got one.
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