Cameron Todd Willingham case: Expert says fire for which father was executed was not arson -- chicagotribune.com »

Posted By tehranchik 4 months ago in News

In a withering critique, a nationally known fire scientist has told a state commission on forensics that Texas fire investigators had no basis to rule a deadly house fire was an arson -- a finding that led to the murder conviction and execution of Cameron Todd Willingham.

The finding comes in the first state-sanctioned review of an execution in Texas, home to the country's busiest death chamber. If the commission reaches the same conclusion, it could lead to the first-ever declaration by an official state body that an inmate was wrongly executed.

Indeed, the report concludes there was no evidence to determine that the December 1991 fire was even set, and it leaves open the possibility the blaze that killed three children was an accident and there was no crime at all -- the same findings found in a Chicago Tribune investigation of the case published in December 2004.

Willingham, the father of those children, was executed in February 2004. He protested his innocence to the end.

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tehranchik

Well, I'm from and live in the Pacific Northwest. I did live in the middle east during the late 70's and early 80 ...

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    jordan114 months ago

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    Oh god. This needs to be investigated fully. How sickening if it's true, and the implications for others on death row from this kind of evidence is obvious.

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