I'm sure many of you have bumped into the national press articles about Cameron Todd Willingham, the new poster boy for the purportedly innocent executed. Frustrated at the lack of real facts in the high-profile articles, I found this local article. Kinda puts things back in perspective again:

http://www.corsicanadailysun.com/thewillinghamfiles/local_story_250180658.html

JAS

Thanks for posting that link. I particularly like the following excerpt. There's no bias in the national media, right?


"The only statement I want to make is that I am an innocent man convicted of a crime I did not commit,� Willingham said in his final moments. �I have been persecuted for 12 years for something I did not do.�

The article in the New Yorker quoted Willingham�s protest of innocence as his final words, but Loyd Cook of the Daily Sun was one of three media witnesses at the execution. Willingham�s actual final words were a venom-filled curse at his ex-wife as he attempted an obscene gesture, Cook reported.

�I hope you rot in hell, b�,� Willingham said before dying.

Thanks for posting that. I wonder how come the NYTimes didn't pick up that story, so that the truth could be told.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Greg Gilleland:
I wonder how come the NYTimes didn't pick up that story, so that the truth could be told.

---

The Hon. John Jackson gives his point of view.

Also, the New Yorker writer David Grann responds here

Your link didn't work for me. I think you have too many https:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2009/09/david-grann-response-to-jackson.html

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6645070.html


In a surprise move, Gov. Rick Perry today appointed two new members to a state commission investigating case of a Corsicana man who some believe was wrongly executed for murdering his children � forcing the cancellation of a meeting on the case scheduled for Friday.

Named to head the Texas Forensic Science Commission was John Bradley, district attorney in Williamson County. Bradley cancelled Friday's meeting at which the panel was to accept fire expert Craig Beyler's analysis of arson investigators' work in the deadly December 1991 house fire.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/101709dnmetarson.2209b39b0.html

JAS

Not that it matters much, but a little local birdie told me the city atty also released the polygraph report which concluded the defendant was not truthful in his denials.

Stacy Kuykendall, the ex-wife of Cameron Todd Willingham, offers her first detailed account of the 1991 fire that claimed the lives of her three daughters and led to Willingham's execution in 2004. "Todd set our house on fire then stood outside and watched it burn," Kuykendall asserts, saying she agrees with Gov. Rick Perry's portrayal of her husband as "a monster." Here is the full statement: Link to long but moving statement.

Maybe they should dig him up and execute him again. And then again. Three times should do the trick--one for each of his innocent victims.

Jurors defend verdict that led to Texas execution

"David Martin is sickened by the suggestion that Texas executed an innocent man when Cameron Todd Willingham was put to death for setting a fire that killed his three children.

The veteran defense attorney represented Willingham at trial. He looked at all the evidence. And he has no doubt that his client deserved to die."