Winter 2010 - The Innocence Project

TRAGEDY IN TEXAS
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based on nearly identical forensic evidence. Willis was exonerated (and ultimately
compensated by the state) after forensic expert Gerald Hurst exposed the flaws in
the forensics in his case. In the days leading up to Willingham’s execution, Hurst also
reviewed the forensics in Willingham’s case and determined that nothing about the
evidence indicated arson any more than an accidental fire. The Texas Board of Pardons
and Paroles and Gov. Perry received the report days before the execution but appear to
have done nothing with the information.
Two other investigations followed, one by the Chicago Tribune and one commissioned
by the Innocence Project. Both concurred with Hurst’s report. The five arson experts
of the Innocence Project Arson Review Committee studied video footage of the fire
damage, analyzed the trial testimony of the fire investigators and addressed each socalled
arson indicator one by one. Indicators included evidence like “pour patterns”
and “crazed glass.” They wrote: “Each and every one of the indicators relied upon
have since been scientifically proven to be invalid.”
The forensic evidence had already been disproven when the Innocence Project
submitted the case to the Texas Forensic Science Commission in 2006. The Innocence
Project asked the commission to investigate both Willingham’s and Willis’ cases and to
determine how one man could be executed and the other exonerated based on the
same forensics. The commission, made up of prosecutors, defense attorneys, forensic
scientists and legal analysts, has the unique ability to help ensure that the kind of
outdated forensic analysis that led to Willingham’s wrongful conviction will no longer
“THIS IS WHAT HE WANTED US
TO DO. HE WANTED US TO
STAND UP FOR HIM.”
– Eugenia Willingham as quoted in the
New York Times, October 14, 2010.
OPPOSITE PAGE: CAMERON TODD WILINGHAM ON THE DAY HE
WAS EXECUTED.
LEFT: EUGENIA WILLINGHAM, STEPMOTHER OF CAMERON
TODD, WITH PHOTOS OF HER LOST GRANDCHILDREN AND THE
STEPSON WHO WAS EXECUTED.
1994 TO 2003 • MICHAEL EVANS 1977 TO 2003 • PAUL TERRY 1977 TO 2003 • LONNIE ERBY 1986 TO 2003 • STEVEN AVERY 1985 TO 2003 • CALVIN WILLIS 1982 TO 2003 • NICHOLAS YARRIS 1982 TO 2003 • CALVIN
L. SCOTT 1983 TO 2003 • WILEY FOUNTAIN 1986 TO 2003 • LEO WATERS 1982 TO 2003 • STEPHAN COWANS 1998 TO 2004 • ANTHONY POWELL 1992 TO 2004 • JOSIAH SUTTON 1999 TO 2004 • LAFONSO ROLLINS 1994
TO 2004 • RYAN MATTHEWS 1999 TO 2004 • WILTON DEDGE 1982, 1984 TO 2004 • ARTHUR L. WHITFIELD 1982 TO 2004 • BARRY LAUGHMAN 1988 TO 2004 • CLARENCE HARRISON 1987 TO 2004 • DAVID A. JONES