Questions About an Execution



People should have no illusions about the brutal injustice of the 
death penalty after all of the exonerations in recent years from DNA 
evidence, but the case of Cameron Todd Willingham is still shocking.

Mr. Willingham was executed for setting a fire that killed his 2-year-
old daughter and 1-year-old twins, but a fire expert hired by the 
State of Texas has issued a report casting enormous doubt on whether 
the fire was arson at all. The Willingham investigation, which is 
continuing, is further evidence that the criminal justice system is 
far too flawed to justify imposing a death penalty.

After the fire, investigators decided, based in large part on burn 
patterns on the house’s floors, that it was intentionally set. 
Prosecutors charged Mr. Willingham, who escaped from the burning 
home, with capital murder. Mr. Willingham protested his innocence 
until the day the state killed him by lethal injection in 2004.

The following year, Texas created the Forensic Science Commission to 
investigate charges of scientific mistakes or misconduct, and the 
panel began looking into the Willingham case. It commissioned Craig 
Beyler, a nationally recognized fire expert, to examine evidence.

Mr. Beyler issued a report last week that painted an ugly picture of 
what passes for expert scientific investigation and testimony in a 
capital case in Texas. The report found that the official inquiry 
into the Willingham fire did not meet prevailing scientific standards 
of the time, much less current ones.

The investigators “had poor understandings of fire science,” Mr. 
Beyler said, and their “methodologies did not comport with the 
scientific method.” He determined that the opinions of one main 
investigator were “nothing more than a collection of personal beliefs 
that have nothing to do with science-based fire investigation.”

The report concluded that a “finding of arson could not be 
sustained.” The Forensic Science Commission is now asking the state 
fire marshal’s office for its response. It anticipates issuing a 
final report next year.

The commission is to be commended for conducting this inquiry, but it 
is outrageous that Texas is conducting its careful, highly skilled 
investigation after Mr. Willingham has been executed, rather than 
before.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/31/opinion/31mon2.html?_r=1