Texas could be forced to admit executing innocent man (Feature)

By Gabriele Chwallek Oct 15, 2010, 1:40 GMT

Washington - Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in 2004 in Texas for the murder of his three daughters in a fire he supposedly set.

There are arson experts who are convinced he was innocent. Their investigations and pressure from the media and a justice watchdog organization could force Texas to make a bitter admission that a terrible miscarriage of justice occurred.

One hearing in the case got under way Thursday in Austin, Texas, before Texas District Judge Charlie Baird. A separate probe by the Texas Forensic Science Commission is to start Friday, media reports said.

Already this year Texas has put 16 convicts to death, in keeping with its record for the greatest number of executions among the 50 US states. It's held that position since the US reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

But the state that death penalty opponents have denounced as execution-crazy could soon find itself in a precarious situation. The judge examining the case could later this month certify that the state executed an innocent man.

It would be an unparalleled move: No state has ever had to make this kind of admission. Human rights groups charge that Texas and its Republican governor, Rick Perry, have done everything possible to avoid having to make such a concession.

Judicial and state examinations of the case have been repeatedly delayed - perhaps because Perry is running for a third term as governor in November elections.

Willingham was executed in February 2004 for the murder of his three daughters. He was convicted of setting his house on fire in 1991 in order to kill his 1-year-old twins and a 2-year-old. They disturbed him as he pursued his hobbies - drinking beer and darts - according to the charges against him. At his trial the jury came to the same conclusion as the prosecutor: This man was a monster.

While Willingham sat on death row and contested the verdict, respected experts started to raise doubts. They argued that the supposed proof for the arson was based on methods and views that are no longer supported by science.

A renowned expert supported Willingham's plea for clemency just before his execution with a report in which he picked apart practically all forensic findings laid out in the court case and concluded that none of the forensic analysis used to convict Willingham was valid.

But it didn't help. The state's clemency board as well as Governor Perry didn't follow up or outright ignored the evidence, critics said. Perry has defended his stance, saying the guilty verdict was based on a series of puzzle pieces that fit together seamlessly.

Among the evidence in the murder trial was testimony by a fellow inmate during pretrial custody that Willingham had admitted to him guilt for the crime. Neighbours testified that the accused didn't do enough to rescue his daughters out of the burning house.

Willingham, whose wife was not home at the time of the fire, insisted he was awakened by the cries of his older daughter when the house was already full of smoke and flames. He tried to bring the girls to safety, he said, but he was unable to because of the rapidly spreading fire.

While the police, prosecutors, the jury and Perry didn't believe him, others, particularly the media, began ringing the alarm bell after the execution. The Chicago Tribune, New Yorker magazine and the New York-based Innocence Project, which seeks to uncover errors made in the US justice system, did their own investigations. They hired fire experts, pointed out contradictions, inconsistencies and weaknesses in the testimony of the neighbours, the fellow inmate and other witnesses.

Willingham has prior convictions for theft and drunken driving, and was by no means an angel, his advocates concede. He also repeatedly beat his wife, but that didn't make him a child killer, they say.

Willingham maintained his innocence all the way to the execution room.

'The only statement I want to make is that I am an innocent man convicted of a crime I did not commit,' he said before the lethal poison coursed into his veins. 'I have been persecuted for twelve years for something I did not do. '

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