Rick Perry today “strenuously defended” the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham against the “supposed experts” who have concluded that Willlingham was innocent of the arson murder of his children. Those “supposed experts” include the Texas Forensic Science Commission. Considering the governor’s stance toward science in general, it is not surprising that he chooses to ignore it in this case in particular. After all, what could forensic science possibly have to tell us about murder?
Perry says he read the court record before refusing to postpone Willingham’s execution, and that was good enough for him. He obviously has not read David Grann’s excellent New Yorker article that shows how Willingham was railroaded, how poorly his court-appointed attorney defended him, and how arson investigators relied on ‘old wives’ tales’ to mount the case against him. The court record has been demolished, Governor. Got anything else to make you feel better?
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Expertise, facts and evidence are highly overrated as means of determining guilt or innocence. The only thing that counts is to look deep down into our hearts and search around in there and ask ourselves, Did this creep do it? If we can do that and honestly say to ourselves, well, yes, maybe he did. Or, it’s not out of the question. He looks like the kind of person who might do that sort of thing.
Then, and only then, can we fry him.
Sad.
For the sake of Texas, I hope it is not true.
I get a little wary of any one person deciding whether or not someone lives or dies, like he’s some Roman emperor, giving a thumb up or down.
I actually talked about Texas’ bloodlust on my blog yesterday. The state has killed 440 people since 1982. To put that in perspective, the city of Trenton, Texas, has about 660 people in it.
What’s sadder to me is the realization that the case had almost no chance of being reexamined but for the fluke here and there, leading to the gripping New Yorker piece. The chances look good that a flawed man with a terrible life pattern of incident behavior was railroaded to death.
Personally I find it harder to believe than the tooth fairy chronicles that this has never happened before, if indeed this has happened here at all. The odds are simply too great. And the Innocense Project has called into question a separate but unequal justice for some. But with Willingham being the unlikely catylist, …..as with the Rodney King beating, where America reacted as though for the first time ever, a black man was being mauled by a rogue white L.A. cop,…. Texans will take this to heart as a first; proof that we, like other states long ago, should declare a hiatus on executions.
This is when the cartoon Rick Perry becomes tragic instead of just cynical.
The trial judge was interviewed on Nightline Thursday night, and agreed with Landslide Perry. He went further, saying that, because Willingham was a fan of heavy metal bands, he was “probably” a Satanist, and the killing of his children was “probably” some kind of Satanic ritual. Where’s Killer Keller when you really need her?
What’s more tragic is that when asked, a majority of death penalty supporters already believe that innocent people might have been executed and that they’re ok with it!
“Two in three Americans who favor the death penalty for murder believe that innocent people have been executed in the last five years. However, death penalty opponents (85%) are more likely to believe that innocent people have been put to death.”
http://www.gallup.com/poll/8419/Support-Death-Penalty-Remains-High-74.aspx
Just remember – the Governor can only issue a 30 day stay. The question is whether 30 days would have changed anything.
What struck me odd about the case was when the firefighters arrived on the scene. He was more interested in his car “getting scorched” than anything else.
Three barbequed pork ribs, two orders of onion rings, fried okra, three beef enchiladas with cheese and two slices of lemon creme pie. Since someone else might be wondering.
His last words actions were addressed to his ex-wife who was watching about 8 feet away through a window. He told her repeatedly in obscenity-laced language that he hoped she would “rot in hell” and attempted to maneuver his hand, strapped at the wrist, into an obscene gesture.
You guys want to hang your hat on this guy? Really.
Execution? What execution?
@Bill: Willingham explained that he moved his car because he didn’t want the heat of the fire to cause it to explode. Have you read the New Yorker story?
The guy’s disposition when he was executed has absolutely no bearing on his guilt or innocence. For that, we rely on science, which unquestionably exonerates the man. But I suspect if you strapped me to a gurney tomorrow to execute me for a crime I didn’t commit, I’d unleash some obscenities, too.
So, again, it doesn’t matter what his last words were. But strictly from a storytelling standpoint, it is interesting that David Grann ended his New Yorker piece with Willingham’s last words — yet omitted that unflattering part about what he said to his ex.
Bill
I guess we will never have that chance to hang our hat on this guy. You see, that death thing is kind of final.
I am a supporter of the death penalty. I think we don’t use it on enough criminals. That said, I think we should go out of our way to make sure the people we have in prison are in fact guilty of the crime.
I have read stories on this case and it bothers me. There are plenty of folks in Corsicana who believe he was guilty and don’t see what the fuss is all about. I don’t know if this guy was a jerk or abuser.. or what. I just want to know that he actually torched the home and killed his kids. In my mind, the report of the Forensic Science Commission raises reasonable doubt.
@Tim Rogers,
Yes, I read the story. Which prompted me to read more into the case. The interviews from neighbors and firefighters paint a different story.
I’m sure after reading The New Yorker article some would have liked to read more about the evidence presented at the trial but something tells me that would have ruined the story and proved in your eyes he was guilty of the crimes anyway.
Try him today, and he would still be found guilty and sentenced to death. As usual, not all the evidence supporting his guilt and sentence is being presented here. Which is OK. I know you guys push agendas. Which is OK too.
@ Bill
“Something” tells you… but we’re the ones pushing an agenda. So much for the Texas Forensic Science Commission.
Gov. Perry is an embarrassment to the State of Texas and to conservatives like me. No thoughtful person would have allowed this execution to occur, regardless of their position on the death penalty.
Perry’s tenure as governor has been remarkable for its anti-science and anti-intellectual attitude. Hopefully, this will be his last term.
Let’s not make this so much about the Governor. It really isn’t about him. It’s about whether this investigation and trial were conducted properly. I suspect much of the reconsideration of this case came after the execution. That would mean much of the evidence the Gov. could have seen that might have made him consider a stay was not presented to him at the time.
@ Curtis:
Let’s do make this about the governor. Fire experts who were alerted to the case tried to intervene with him and the Board of Pardons and Paroles. They were ignored. It’s all in the record. That’s why Perry is so defensive about it. He now dismisses his own forensice science commission because it also is composed of, in his words, “so-called experts.”
How would we not make it about the governor?
I love this selective buck stopping.
Grann’s article in The New Yorker is what you would expect from them. He glosses over the fact that Willingham was abusive to his girl friend / wife acting as though beating up a pregnant woman is no big deal and did not mention that he was arrested for it. He also glosses over the fact that Willingham admitted at the end that he lied about going back in to save his “babies” because he did not want to be perceived a coward.
Willingham’s lying about what he did inside the house before coming out was probably as obvious to everyone at the scene as it was to his court appointed attorney.
At 9:00 am, Willingham the unemployed drunk is at best leaving his three children ages one and two in a room with an electric heater so he can go back to sleep. He admitted that he had already beaten his two year old for messing with the heater. I guess he expected the 2 year old to be in charge because the one years olds were not in a crib as their burned bodies were found on the floor. Any parent knows that his defense should have been that he was too stupid to be a parent let alone left alone with young children. Imagine the outrage if the two year old had been left with a loaded gun or if this had been a baby sitter situation.
On the other hand, the Lime Street experiment showed that over four minutes elapsed before the “flashover.” That gave him time to turn the heater off before he left his children to burn to death and he was surprised that his two year old made it into his bedroom where she was desperately looking for someone that cared enough to help her and her sisters.
Willingham at best left his children in the house to burn up as he saved his drunk or hungover sorry a** and put on a show for everyone outside the house. At the worst, he set the fire and didn’t really need accelerant to murder his three young children. Only Willingham and probably his 2 year old know the truth and when he had his opportunity to tell it he chose to lie and not testify. To declare him innocent and railroaded makes little sense and to try to use his execution to discredit Governor Perry exposes the author’s motives.
Grann need’s to focus on the political and financial cess pool of New York and not try to interfere with the Texas Governor race.
@Dubious Brother: By most accounts, Willingham was a contemptible man. You’re right. But the science says he didn’t set the fire. THAT’S why he was executed — wrongfully. Texas doesn’t execute people for being hungover, negligent parents or for beating their spouses. Or, rather, it ought not to.
I don’t see where “science says he didn’t set the fire.”
Dubious,
uh, that’s what it means when the scientists say it wasn’t arson…
Altogether you don’t seem to get how the justice system is supposed to work. We don’t execute people because we don’t like them or because they might be vile human beings. We have to prove that they committed a specific crime beyond a reasonable doubt. That’s not the case here. At the very least there is a reasonable doubt that he set a fire to kill his children. That’s what he was executed for. If he didn’t do that, he was innocent of the crime he was executed for.
And that would mean we all as Texans committed murder, because he was executed in our name.
He was convicted by a jury who felt that beyond a resonable doubt he set the fire.
All of his appeals failed.
Isn’t that how the justice system works?
That jury felt like he set the fire–because they were relying on a report that was flat-out false. That’s not how the justice system is supposed to work.
But let’s keep this simple. Real simple. The prosecution used evidence to convince this guy–all of which has turned out to be false.
Our governor is an embarrassment to the great state of Texas. I hope the GOP is proud of this fool they have given us. He is ignorant and proud of it, so I guess he fits right in with most citizens of this great state.
The truly terrifying thing about this story, aside from the fact that an innocent man might have died, is the fact that any one of us, being innocent, could also be put to death. As an American this account scares the $#!t out of me, because it says if you’re a bad enough person and unfortunate circumstances happen around you, the state can make a case for killing you. And succeed in doing so.
Also, sure Perry played a role right there at the end, but what about this Board of Pardons and Paroles? They seem like the real incompetent jerk-offs to me.
There are more fake arson convictions on fake science. Curtis Severns, former gun shop owner in Plano, was falsely convicted and sent to federal prison.
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=3002
I wonder if outdated fire science will be the new DNA.
Is anyone else thrilled that FrontBurner comments are back on? THIS is where the real action is.