Perry removes panel appointees before hearing on flawed arson inquiry; new chair delays session

[Heidi]

Source: Dallas Morning News

12:00 AM CDT on Thursday, October 1, 2009

AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry was blasted Wednesday after he swept three appointees from their jobs just two days before they were set to critically examine a flawed arson investigation that contributed to the execution of a Corsicana man.

The hearing of the Texas Forensic Science Commission, scheduled for Friday in Irving, was abruptly canceled by the new chairman the governor chose, Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley. He is considered one of the most conservative, hard-line prosecutors in Texas.

The commission was to hear from Baltimore-based Craig Beyler, a nationally recognized fire expert, who had been hired by the panel to review the Cameron Todd Willingham case. Beyler's long-anticipated report, released in August, called the Willingham fire investigation slipshod and based on wives' tales about how fire behaves and possible arson evidence.

Perry said his move was a typical use of his power on appointments, on which he has complete discretion. But Barry Scheck, co-director of the New York-based Innocence Project, compared the move to Richard Nixon during Watergate.



Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/state/stories/DN-arsoncases_01tex.ART.State.Edition2.4bd66dd.html

[depakid]

1. Can't let anything get in the way of those executions..

Even when they're already done.

[Aragorn]

2. Nixon-Cox-Richardson

That's what I was thinkin' too....

[Javaman]

3. cement head perry

sounds like his little version of Nixon's massacre.

he's in deep shit now.

I wonder how this will go over with the state attorney's office.

[curiousdemo]

4. Nixon Lives!

Texas have a history of prosecuting innocent people. Just last year, Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins was Dallas Morning News Texan of Year. Why, because he was responsible for using DNA to exonerate 20 innocent people. Perry "The Separatist" Governor has become a national embarrassment. The man need to be impeached immediately, and indicted for this cover-up. The State of Texas has possibly executed a innocent man, and Perry signed off on it. Someone need to forward this story to 60 minutes. The world need to know about the killing fields here in Texas.

Here's another embarrassing story in Dallas Morning News that came out today about this Separatist Governor.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/legislature/stories/DN-onestar_01tex.ART.State.Edition1.4c1bfc9.html

[eppur_se_muova]

5. Texas governor shakes up panel probing 2004 execution {Willingham "arson" case}

Source: CNN

By Matt Smith
CNN

DALLAS, Texas (CNN) -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Wednesday shook up the ranks of a state commission that is probing whether a man executed in 2004 belonged on death row, forcing the commission to delay a scheduled hearing on the case.

Perry replaced the chairman of the Texas Forensic Science Commission and refused to reappointment two other members. The moves came two days before the commission had been scheduled to hear from arson investigation expert Craig Beyler, the author of the latest of three reports critical of the testimony that helped prosecutors convict Cameron Todd Willingham of murder in 1992. The governor's office told CNN the moves were a routine replacement of members whose terms had expired.

Perry, who says he remains convinced of Willingham's guilt, replaced commission Chairman Sam Bassett with John Bradley, the district attorney of Williamson County, near Austin. Another member, Aliece Watts, was replaced with San Antonio forensic pathologist Norma Farley. Perry also did not reappoint Alan Levy, a prosecutor in Fort Worth's Tarrant County.

As a result of the shakeup, the Forensic Science Commission put off Friday's scheduled session with Beyler, who was to answer questions about his conclusions in a public forum. The commission "will need time to regroup and reorganize," its staff coordinator, Leigh Tomlin, told CNN.



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/09/30/texas.execution.probe/index.html

---

Just routine bureaucratic committee-shuffling with conspicuously awkward timing, not an attempt to hide the truth. Move along, folks, nothing to see here.




ON EDIT-- Oops, scooped by posts from local press --
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6665042&mesg_id=6665042
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4085449&mesg_id=4085449

[paulsby]

6. there was an excellent article

on this story in a recent new yorker. i'm a subscriber. they have some really good in depth articles imo

[jeffbr]

7. Anyone can read it for free:

The New Yorker
September 7, 2009

Trial by Fire
Did Texas execute an innocent man?
by David Grann

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/09/07/090907fa_fact_grann

[paulsby]

9. nice. i';ll save that link

actually, a repub relative of mine (who is a big fan of the new yorker) got me the subscription. i kind of like it too, for it's "new yorker uber alles" attitude, which i, as a staunch NON-new yorker (grew up in new england, lived in cali and hawaii, and currently live in the pac NW) find amusing.

but at least they are totally honest about it.

[JNelson6563]

8. Yeah, ol' Goodhair won't stand for

objectivity on this issue. It's his way or the highway.

[fasttense]

10. A man was executed for junk science and political expediency.

Rick Perry denied him a 30 day stay to look into the false claims of his guilt.

Just remember this was an innocent man executed, Not a criminal, Not a number.

From the New Yorker article:

"Just before Willingham received the lethal injection, he was asked if he had any last words. He said, “The only statement I want to make is that I am an innocent man convicted of a crime I did not commit. I have been persecuted for twelve years for something I did not do. From God’s dust I came and to dust I will return, so the Earth shall become my throne.”

[HippieCowgirl]

11. Perry's losing his grip on the governorship

If it's confirmed that he presided over the death of an innocent man, he'll lose his throne. Expect to see more stunts like this as he covers his ass. Kay Hutchison is hot on his tail (She's a Republican too - fat chance of seeing a viable Dem for governor...) and he's terrified of losing. She's far more popular than he is.

[Rozlee]

14. You're right, HippieCowgirl

a Dem will never be elected to higher office in Texas. Down 30 miles south of us in San Antonio, a liberal Hispanic kid by the name of Julian Castro got elected mayor, but that's because San Antone is 58% Hispanic and I doubt he'd have state wide appeal if he took on the vested, entrenched, big monied interests in Dallas and Fort Worth if he tried to go for a higher office. I've got a humongoniferously big Hispanic family on my mothers side here in Texas myself or I'd get the hell out of this backward Troglodyte state and move to some Northern elitist place where they're not churning out inmates from courts to graves on a regular basis.

[pattmarty]

12. I hope this stupid redneck, hillbilly motherfucker runs for Prez in 2012.

[McCamy Taylor]

13. Rick Perry is an abomination.

[Scott Cobb]

15. Petition Texas Governor Rick Perry to Admit Todd Willingham was Innocent

http://camerontoddwillingham.com/?page_id=6

Sign the petition to Governor Rick Perry and the State of Texas to acknowledge that the fire in the Cameron Todd Willingham case was not arson, therefore no crime was committed and on February 17, 2004, Texas executed an innocent man.

We plan to deliver the petition at the 10th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty on October 24 in Austin at the Texas Capitol.

http://marchforabolition.org

[Blue_Tires]

16. ttt

[Joanne98]

17. Shakeup in Texas execution probe draws criticism, questions

Source: CNN

DALLAS, Texas (CNN) -- An investigation into claims that faulty evidence led Texas to execute a man in 2004 was at a "crucial point" when the state's governor replaced three of its members this week, one of the three said Thursday.

Gov. Rick Perry's shake-up of the Texas Forensic Science Commission came two days before it was to hear from the author of a scathing report in the case of Cameron Todd Willingham. That Friday session has been postponed indefinitely in the wake of Perry's new appointments.

Willingham was put to death for killing his three daughters in a fire that arson investigators said had been deliberately set.

Yet death-penalty opponents say an impartial review of the case could lead to an unprecedented admission -- that the state executed an innocent man.

Three reports, including one commissioned by the Forensic Science Commission, have concluded that arson was not the likely cause of the 1991 fire.

Perry's office described the governor's replacement of commission members as routine, saying the terms of Chairman Sam Bassett and commissioners Alan Levy and Aliece Watts had expired. But Levy said he told the governor's office "that it would be disruptive to make the new appointments right now."


Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/01/texas.execution.probe/

[ck4829]

18. This could end up being a very big mistake for Perry

[chaplainM]

19. Governor Perry responds

"We have it on good authority that the accused did in fact weight the same as a duck."

[maglatinavi]

20. shake up

Who says this is the land of freedom and justice? No one with any brains believes so in Texas. It is not humane nor just and the governor; Perry, hopefully will not be able to sleep peacefully at night for thr rest of his life. Must probably will have to take sleeping pills at night. Either that, or he is the most hardened government criminal in the US ...

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

21. i'm sure he will sleep just fine,

Most governors, Republican or Democrat would wave to cameras as they marched their own mother into the gas chamber if they thought it would make them look tough.

[BeyondGeography]

22. Perry's panicking

Willingham was innocent, and the story of his execution is a shatteringly sad, dark tale. At least he is clearly getting the better of Perry in death.