What about Willingham, Rick Perry?

So Rick Perry wants to keep the Obama birth certificate issue alive? Wonder if he feels the same way about the Cameron Todd Willingham case?

Frontline thought it was okay. They re-ran their October 19, 2010 show “Death by Fire” tonight, which not only brings up the Texas Governor’s role in refusing to grant a 30-day stay of execution so due consideration could be given to new evidence that could have established Cameron Todd Willingham’s innocence — it also shows how he interfered with the investigation into the case.

Cameron Todd Willingham was executed by the State of Texas on February 17, 2004 after being convicted of the murder of his 3 children by arson. The case gained national attention after David Grann wrote an article in 2009, Trial by Fire, in the New Yorker, posing the question: “did Texas execute an innocent man?”

Earlier in the year, the State of Texas ordered a re-examination of the case, and hired Dr. Craig Beyler to asssess the arson evidence. Beyler found that “a finding of arson could not be sustained.” Governor Perry did not care. He was running for election at the time, too. So when the Texas Forensic Science Commission was just about to meet in October and make a ruling on the Beyler report, Perry replaced Sam Bassett, the chair of the commission, and two other members. Now that his political ally, John Bradley was the new chair, the meeting was put off until after the election which Perry won. Eventually in 2011, according to the Innocence Project, the Texas Attorney General issued an opinion prohibiting the commission from investigating “specific items of evidence” tested or offered into evidence prior to September 1, 2005.

In Frontline’s report, they show Rick Perry stating that Willingham was a bad man who cursed at his ex-wife right before they executed him. Well, gee. His ex-wife was claiming he confessed to the murders to her. Willingham told his step-mother he never made any such confession. Rick Perry does not seem to get that cursing your ex-wife out does not constitute proof that you committed murder. A lot of people in that documentary don’t seem to get that without real proof of arson, the State of Texas really didn’t have a murder case against Todd Cameron Willingham at all.

Sam Bassett said: “I think the implications for capital punishment are there. But the implications for non-capital cases are there, too. And that is, if we make a mistake, are we going to learn from it? Or are we going to try to sweep it under the rug and act like nothing happened?”

The Frontline documentary can be seen online here or you can read the transcript here.

Another documentary: “Incendiary: The Willingham Case” was just released this month which we have not seen yet.

Anyway, it’s hard to believe that Rick Perry has the nerve to talk about Obama’s birth certificate after his shenanigans and interference into the investigation of this case.

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Tags: obama, rick, sam, todd