The Texas Forensic Science Commission received a report last month questioning the science involved in the capital case of executed inmate Cameron Todd Willingham, convicted in 2004 for the 1991 deaths of his three daughters in a fire experts said was arson. Nationally known fire scientist Craig Beyler’s conclusion in the report – that there was no sign of arson – has set off a firestorm of controversy: If there was no crime, then the state of Texas put to death an innocent man. The case’s prosecutors have argued otherwise – John Jackson has said that additional evidence (like Willingham’s past troubles with his wife) suggests he was in fact guilty. TFSC member Samuel Bassett said that the commission plans to question Beyler about his conclusions and will also seek responses to Beyler’s report from others involved in the case – including the Texas State Fire Marshal’s Office, whose investigator was one of two fire “experts” who concluded that the fire at Willingham’s Corsicana home had been deliberately set. According to Beyler, their conclusions had no “basis … in modern fire science.” Bassett said the commission plans to finish its own report in the first half of 2010.
This article appears in September 11 • 2009.