 Readings & LinksOctober 19, 2010, 9:12 pm ET
Local and National Reporting Arson Science & Investigation The Death Penalty Debate Local and National Reporting on the Willingham CaseThis Chicago Tribune article, published 10 months after Willingham’s execution, is the first major story questioning the arson evidence. It contends “Willingham was prosecuted and convicted based primarily on arson theories that have since been repudiated by scientific advances,” and features statements from four fire experts, including Gerald Hurst and John Lentini. (Dec. 9, 2004) David Grann’s September 2009 investigation in The New Yorker catapulted Willingham’s case into the national spotlight. Grann’s article highlights perceived problems with Willingham’s trial, the changes in arson science over the past 20 years, and the role played by Willingham’s prison pen pal, writer Elizabeth Gilbert, in the years leading up to Willingham’s 2004 execution. Some readers criticized Grann for omitting the vulgarity in Willingham’s final words directed at his ex-wife. A summary and commentary of these critiques is at the blog The Awl and the transcript of Willingham’s final words is here. Other responses to Grann’s article include an op-ed from Hon. John Jackson, one of the prosecutors in the Willingham case, who cited evidence he says highlights Willingham’s guilt; here is Grann’s response to some of those arguments. Grann also wrote a blog post on Stacy Willingham’s October 2009 declaration that Todd confessed his guilt to her, pointing out several contradictory statements she has made over the years. In October 2010, as an exoneration hearing was being set in Texas on the case, Stacy addressed the media and again stated that Todd had confessed his guilt to her just before his execution. Important local perspective on the case is collected on the website of the Corsicana Daily Sun [Texas]. It includes: the initial story of the fire; reporting from the start the trial and from when Willingham was found guilty; a 2004 article featuring interviews with both Todd and Stacy Willingham; and reflections from jurors and others involved in the case. The site also contains an editorial lamenting the national media’s coverage. It was written by the newspaper’s managing editor, who was a radio reporter on the scene of the fire in 1991. There’s also guest commentary from John Bradley, Gov. Rick Perry’s 2009 appointee to chair the Texas Forensic Science Commission, in which he lays out the committee’s goals and cautions that residents “should be skeptical of media reports, personal pronouncements and editorials on that case”; and reporting on the city of Corsicana’s final response to the Willingham case in 2010, including accusations from Corsicana city attorney Terry Jacobson that the Texas Forensic Science Commission is “playing politics” with its ongoing investigation. From Texas Monthly reporter Michael Hall, who has been writing about criminal justice in Texas for a decade — this December 2009 article compares Willingham’s case with that of Ernest Ray Willis, a man convicted and sentenced to death based on arson evidence that was similar to Willingham’s. Testimony from fire scientists and two pro bono lawyers eventually exonerated Willis. Also see Hall’s May 2010 article on the fallibility of forensic evidence; his December 2002 piece “Death Isn’t Fair,” an in-depth examination of the way the state of Texas handles death penalty cases; and “Life After Death,” a January 2011 article in which Hall argues for a moratorium on the death penalty in Texas. Arson Science & InvestigationThe Texas Forensic Science Commission [TFSC] was established by the state in 2005 to investigate complaints of negligence or misconduct in forensics analysis. After the Innocence Project took up the Willingham case, the TFSC announced in 2008 that it would investigate the forensics used to convict Willingham. Updates on the TFSC’s probe are posted here. The Innocence Project, which works to exonerate the wrongfully convicted, offers a brief history of the TFSC and the Willingham case here, along with key documents, including Craig Beyler’s 2009 report to the commission [PDF] that calls the science used in the Willingham case “folklore.” The Innocence Project also chronicles cases of “unvalidated or improper” forensic science, and spearheads “Just Science,” an initiative that offers recommendations for forensic reform in the criminal justice system. On Sept. 9, 2009, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary held a hearing “Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States.” Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) raised the issue of arson science in the Willingham case. You can download the testimonies of the six witnesses and watch a webcast of the hearing here. Arson expert John Lentini’s website Scientific Fire Analysis hosts his publications on arson science. They include “The Lime Street Fire: Another Perspective,” [PDF] in which he contests traditional understandings of burn patterns through a series of tests. You can also explore multimedia, including video from this and other tests he had conducted. And, listen to this NPR interview, in which Lentini discusses the Willingham case and some of the advances in fire analysis. In the December 2010 issue of Reason, Radley Balko analyzes John Lentini’s call for bifurcated trials in arson cases — one trial to determine whether a crime was committed, followed by another trial to determine who committed it. Balko posits that though bifurcated trials are a “fairly radical idea,” they could narrow the odds of convicting innocent people. The Death Penalty DebateThe Willingham case has factored heavily in the debate over capital punishment, particularly in Texas. The website for FRONTLINE’s 1999 film The Execution offers influential arguments for or against the death penalty, legal and cultural explanations for Texas’s status as the state with the highest number of executions, the history of the death penalty and other related resources. The controversy over the testimony of inmate Johnny Webb in the Willingham case — his testimony in Willingham’s trial, his recantation of that testimony, and his subsequent recantation of his recantation — illuminates a national debate over the use of testimony for which a witness, particularly a witness who faces criminal charges or is already serving time, has incentive to lie. The Northwestern University School of Law’s Center on Wrongful Convictions published this report [PDF] profiling 15 cases in which “snitch” or incentivized testimony was used to sentence to death individuals who were later exonerated. The report contends that snitch testimony is the leading cause of wrongful convictions in capital cases and argues for reform. The Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit organization offering analysis and information on issues related to capital punishment has a helpful timeline and state-by-state breakdowns. You can explore its analysis of Texas here. The website of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice offers statistics and breakdowns about those on death row, including breakdowns by race and gender, as well as the dates scheduled for executions. On Dec. 13, 2010, The Texas Tribune reported on a study by the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. Among its findings: Texas juries sent eight people to death in 2010 — the lowest number since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 — and the number of death sentences handed down in the state dropped 70 percent since 2003. The U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics offers statistics on capital punishment cases nationwide, and Gallup has published the statistical results of its public opinion polling on capital punishment, including breakdowns of opinion given type of crime and different conditions of the convicted. RELATED
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