Houston Chronicle: Chronicle sues Perry over clemency report

[Heidi]

Oct. 27, 2009, 7:41PM

AUSTIN — The Houston Chronicle and Hearst Newspapers LLC are suing Gov. Rick Perry in an effort to force the release of a clemency report Perry received before denying a stay of execution to Cameron Todd Willingham.

The report is a summary and status of the case against Willingham that was given to Perry at 11:30 a.m. on the day of Willingham's 2004 execution in the fire deaths of his three daughters. Anti-death penalty advocates say modern fire forensics show the blaze cannot be proven as arson.

Perry's office has refused to release the report, claiming it is a privileged document. The clemency document was used by Perry in the process of deciding whether to give Willingham a 30-day stay of execution.

“When it comes to human life, there is no place the governor should be more transparent in his decision-making,” said Jonathan Donnellan, an attorney for Hearst and the Chronicle.

“It should raise eyebrows that the governor is seeking to shield communications with his advisers as ‘legal advice,' when the very idea of executive clemency power is to make a policy decision after the legal process has run its course,” Donnellan said.

Willingham was put to death shortly after 6 p.m. on Feb. 17, 2004, just 88 minutes after the Governor's Office received an expert's report that the fire that killed Willingham's children could not be positively attributed to arson. It is unknown whether the report by Perry's general counsel included any mention of the arson controversy in the Willingham case.

<snip>

A renewed controversy over the Willingham case erupted recently when Perry replaced members of the Texas Forensics Commission who were looking into the case to see whether standards for arson investigations could be improved. But their removal halted the investigation, sparking accusations the governor was trying to cover up an investigation into whether Willingham was innocent.

Read more