Texas Gov. Ducks Arson Investigation

by Matt Kelley · 2009-10-01 06:00:00 UTC
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The Willingham case was getting too hot for Rick Perry.

In a surprising move yesterday, the Texas Governor removed three of the eight members of a state forensic panel that was set to review arson evidence in the 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham at a public hearing on Friday. The panel's chairman and two other members were pulled by Perry, and Friday's meeting has been cancelled.

Willingham was executed in 2004 despite evidence available at the time that the arson science that led to his conviction was flat-out wrong. Further reports from independent arson experts since Willingham's execution have proven that he was innocent. I've written about the case before here and here.

Perry's move - two days before an arson expert was expected to testify that Willingham was convicted based on "myths" - certainly didn't fly under the political radar, however.

His opponent for the governor's office, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, questioned the move: "Why you wouldn't you at least have the hearing that the former member suggested, to find out what the facts are, when a man has been executed and now the facts are in dispute – just like DNA has given more tools to determine the facts," she said.

Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck compared the move to the Saturday Night Massacre, where special prosecutor Archibald Cox was fired in an attempt to prevent him from obtaining the Watergate tapes.

Alan Levy, an assistant district attorney removed by Perry yesterday, said the move may backfire:

Levy said Perry's timing was unfortunate and might raise suspicions of interference with the commission “whether they are justified or not.”

“This is a very important case and what this does is raise the temperature,” he said. “I think the results of that are not going to be good.”

More on Perry's move from JR at Daily Kos, Grits for Breakfast, the AP, Houston Chronicle, Dallas Morning News and The New York Times.

Full disclosure: When I'm not blogging here at change.org, I work as the online communications manager for the Innocence Project. Opinions expressed here are my own and do not represent the Innocence Project.

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.
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