Groundbreaking New Reports Show Texas Executed an Innocent Man
08.31.09
An exhaustive report released today by the New Yorker finds that Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in 2004 in Texas for murders he didn't commit. The report follows years of investigation into the case, and concludes that the arson analysis used to convict Willingham was wrong — and that none of the other evidence used to convict Willingham was valid.
The findings in the New Yorker report and other evaluations of Willingham's case have brought renewed calls for a moratorium on executions and comprehensive reforms of forensic science in the United States.
Read the full New Yorker story here
.
Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck writes
in the Huffington Post today
that this case should lead to sweeping improvements in the forensic sciences:
Whether our criminal justice system has executed an innocent man should no longer be an open question. We don't know how often it happens, but we know it has happened. Cameron Todd Willingham's case proves that.
The focus turns to how we can stop it from happening again. As long as our system of justice makes mistakes — including the ultimate mistake — we cannot continue executing people.
Today's 16,000-word New Yorker story comes a week after independent arson expert Craig Beyler submitted his report to the Texas Forensic Science Commission, which is conducting a review of Willingham's conviction. Beyler, like a panel of national arson experts assembled three years ago by the Innocence Project, found that the science used to convict Willingham was wrong. The Texas Forensic Science Commission announced that it is reviewing Beyler's report and will release its conclusions next year.
Today's Coverage of The Case:
Innocence Project Press Release:
New Report Shows that Cameron Todd Willingham, Executed in Texas in 2004, Was Innocent
New Yorker:
Trial by Fire
New Yorker Video:
Flashover
Huffington Post:
Innocent, But Executed
New York Times Editorial:
Questions About an Execution
Background
Expert Panel Review of Willingham and Willis convictions
.
Understand the Causes:
Unvalidated or Improper Forensic Science
The Just Science Coalition
: Supporting Forensic Reform to Improve the Accuracy of the Criminal Justice System
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