Naked City

Bronze figures representing Confederate soldiers stand sentry as the historic Goddess of Liberty – usually visible atop the Capitol dome – goes undercover to protect her identity during ongoing restoration work at the Capitol. (Photo by Jana Birchum)

No Time for Registration Hesitation

Are you registered to vote? Are you sure? If you want to participate in the Nov. 2 elections, the registration deadline is Monday, Oct. 4. And if you've moved since the last election, you may not be properly registered. Travis County will hold registration drives on Monday at all ThunderCloud Subs locations, Thunderbird Coffee Shops, and Fry's Electronics. There are also ongoing drives at ACC campuses, the UT main campus, St. Edward's University, Huston-Tillotson University, and Virginia College, plus applications are always available at H-E-B and Randall's stores, libraries and hospitals, places of worship, post offices, and city and county offices or online (if you have a printer) at www.traviscountytax.org. For more info, call 854-9473. – Lee Nichols

Forensics Work Is Never Done

A driver passes off a bag of drugs to Paul Nadeau of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency as part of a national prescription drug take-back day, held Sept. 25 in Austin at Cornerstone Church. Residents were urged to safely dispose of their unused meds to prevent them from tainting the water supply and God knows what else. (Photo by Jana Birchum)

The Innocence Project of Texas is asking the Forensic Science Commission to review the circumstances of yet another arson-murder conviction, one in which the project says sloppy work by the Bexar County medical examin­er's toxicology department led to a wrongful conviction. At issue is the 1993 conviction of Sonia Cacy for the arson-murder of her uncle, William Richardson, in their home in Fort Stockton; Cacy escaped the fire, but her uncle perished. Cacy was convicted largely on testimony from the medical examiner's office, which concluded that Cacy had doused Richardson with gasoline before the blaze was set. Since Cacy's conviction (and sentence of 99 years), experts have concluded that Richardson actually died of a heart attack before the fire and that there was no evidence that an accelerant had been poured on his clothing. Forensic experts theorize that the heart attack caused Richardson, a heavy smoker, to "drop his cigarette, igniting a fire in the living room." (One of the experts to counter the original testimony was Austin's Dr. Gerald Hurst, the first expert to counter the arson finding in the case of Cameron Todd Willing­ham, who was executed for the deaths of his children in a house fire; see "Judge To Review Willingham Case.") Based on evidence laid out in its complaint, the Innocence Project asserts Cacy's innocence: "she did not kill her beloved uncle, she did not douse him with gasoline, and she did not set him or the house on fire," it reads, adding, "Irrefutable scientific evidence from some of the nation's leading experts have proven her innocence." They are asking the FSC to investigate its claim of "professional negligence and misconduct" on the part of the Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office. There is no deadline for the FSC to respond. – Jordan Smith

Council's Counselors?

It seems that Austin Police Assoc­iation President Wayne Vincent and Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas President Todd Harri­son, also an Austin cop, might have thought better before taking credit for the Austin City Council's decision to reject a settlement with the family of Nathaniel Sanders II. In July, Sanders family attorney Adam Loewy made comments to the effect that a tentative $750,000 settlement with the city meant the city was taking responsibility for an unjustified shooting by an Austin cop. In a story in this month's edition of CLEAT magazine The Texas Police Star (found at www.cleat.org), Vincent and Harrison largely attribute council's subsequent rejection of the settlement to APA and CLEAT's aggressive lobbying of members behind the scenes: "This proves that APA and CLEAT can exert much more political muscle than most politicians ever thought," Harrison says in the article. "We do not intend to allow the lawful actions of our members to be second-guessed and sold on the auction block by criminal defense attorneys and anti-police activists." Nor, apparently, does he intend to avoid grandstanding. – J.S.