A Firestorm of Controversy

Incendiary co-directors Joe Bailey Jr. (left) and Steve Mims

The case of Cameron Todd Willingham, executed in 2004 for the alleged arson-murder of his three young children inside the family home in Corsicana, remains a flashpoint for controversy nearly 20 years after the fire was extinguished on the morning on Dec. 23, 1991.

And with Gov. Rick Perry now on the national campaign trail, with his bid to be named the GOP presidential candidate in 2012, disturbing questions about the case – and Perry's role in the ongoing drama – remain in the foreground. Did the state of Texas, and ultimately Perry, who declined to stay Willingham's February 2004 execution, rely on outdated "junk" fire science to conclude that the fire was deliberately set and that Willingham was, to use Perry's own words, "a monster"? What does the fire science say now? Did state officials – from fire investigators to prosecutors to jurors to Perry – make a fatal mistake that can't be undone?

Those are among the questions raised in the documentary Incendiary: The Willingham Case, by local filmmakers Steve Mims and Joe Bailey Jr., which premiered in March at SXSW, where it won the Louis Black/Lone Star Award. The film is engaging, provocative, and disturbing – and not to be missed. Indeed, in the event you have, to date, missed out, worry not: Incendiary opens at the Violet Crown on Friday, Sept. 23.

For background on the case and film, check out our two-part interview with the filmmakers here and here.