Did bad science lead to the execution of an innocent man?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: John Adams <jadams01 () sprynet com>
Date: May 7, 2006 1:30:07 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: For IP: Did bad science lead to the execution of an innocent  
man?

After I read this story, I kept thinking about this poor son-of-a- 
bitch going to his death, insisting on his innocence, and probably  
thinking that as long as he was remembered, he'd be remembered for  
supposedly killing his three young daughters.

Here's the link: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/ 
scotus/la-na-execute3may03,1,7807272.story?coll=la-news-politics- 
supreme_court

Here's the money quote (and I do mean money, come to think of it,  
because proving arson is a good way for insurance companies to get  
out of paying for damages--I wonder whether, when there's money at  
stake rather than someone's life, higher standards are used):

"Arson is the only crime for which you can be executed based on the  
opinion of a man with a high school education," Lentini said,  
referring to the fact that many arson investigators are qualified by  
judges as "experts" even though they lack scientific training.

In the Houston Chronicle story on the subject, which can be found at  
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3836493.html , we  
find this lovely ending:

"Gov. Rick Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt said "it's impossible to  
say," based on evidence presented at the news conference, whether  
Willingham was indeed not guilty."

True enough--but what the evidence does appear to show is that the  
claim presented by the prosecution of scientific proof that arson was  
committed was a bogus claim. Since the man is dead, there'll be no  
appeal, unlike the other guy in the story, who spent seventeen years  
on death row before he was found to be innocent.

The story as a whole is worth reading:

Panel Says Faulty Arson Evidence Led to Execution
A man was convicted of murdering his three children based on 'bad  
science,' its report says.
By Henry Weinstein, Times Staff Writer
 May 3, 2006

A man executed by the state of Texas in 2004 was convicted on an  
erroneous interpretation of fire evidence, according to a report from  
four leading arson experts.

The experts called the fire evidence presented at the trial of  
Cameron Willingham for the 1991 murders of his three children in a  
house fire "bad science" in the report presented to Texas officials  
Tuesday.

The state's expert witnesses "relied on interpretations of  
'indicators' that they were taught constituted evidence of arson.  
While we have no doubt that these witnesses believed what they were  
saying, each and every one of the indicators relied upon have since  
been scientifically proven to be invalid," the Arson Review Committee  
report states.

Prosecution witnesses testified that the only way the fire in  
Willingham's Corsicana, Texas, home could have started was with a  
"liquid accelerant," such as gasoline, that had been left on the  
floor. The witnesses said they reached this conclusion because of the  
pattern of burn marks on the floor.

But the report said that presumption was no longer valid.

"The philosophy that was out there for years was if you have fairly  
deep penetrating char on some floor material and then right next to  
it unburned floor material of the same type, it had to be caused by  
burning liquid accelerant," said Daniel Churchward of Fort Wayne,  
Ind. A panel member who has been investigating fires since 1972 as a  
sheriff's deputy, firefighter and insurance company investigator,  
Churchward said: "That has been proved wrong time and again. There  
are other ways to create those patterns."

 John J. Lentini, the former chairman of the forensic science  
committee of the International Assn. of Arson Investigators, led the  
review panel and said in an interview that he was convinced that  
Texas had executed an innocent man.

 Lentini presented the group's findings at a news conference in  
Austin, Texas, with attorney Barry Scheck, co-founder of the  
Innocence Project at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New  
York, which commissioned the report. No member of the panel was  
involved with Willingham's case and they were not paid for their  
work, they said.

They gave the report to the recently formed Texas Forensic Science  
Commission, created by the state Legislature last year to deal with  
problems in criminal investigations revealed in recent years,  
including mistakes made by police crime labs in Houston and Lubbock.

 "I think we now have scientific proof that an innocent person was  
executed and we have a government agency that is obligated to say  
so," Scheck said. He said that the Texas commission should open a  
broad investigation of arson cases, citing statistics showing that  
Texas has the highest percentage in the country of people imprisoned  
on arson convictions.

Until now, the Innocence Project has worked almost exclusively on  
cases where there was DNA evidence. Its work has helped exonerate and  
secure freedom for dozens of individuals nationwide who had been  
convicted of murder and rape.

The Innocence Project also is investigating the cases of five  
individuals in other states — including one in California — in prison  
after convictions on arson charges, Scheck said.

 Lentini said he hoped that the Arson Review Committee's report  
"would raise public awareness of a serious problem in the justice  
system" with arson investigations.

 "I have been on the front lines of fire investigations for 30  
years. I used to believe a lot of" things about arson that turned out  
not to be true, Lentini said.

"Arson is the only crime for which you can be executed based on the  
opinion of a man with a high school education," Lentini said,  
referring to the fact that many arson investigators are qualified by  
judges as "experts" even though they lack scientific training.

 Churchward said that arson investigations began to change  
dramatically in 1992 after the National Fire Protection Assn. adopted  
new procedures calling for more scientific rigor. Nonetheless,  
Churchward and Lentini said many fire investigators were resistant to  
change.

 Their report urged heightened review of fire investigations. "To  
the extent that there are still investigators in Texas and elsewhere  
who [misinterpret fires], there will continue to be serious  
miscarriages of justice," the report states.

 John Jackson, the lead prosecutor in the case who is now a judge,  
declined comment, as did officials of the International Assn. of  
Arson Investigators.

 According to testimony at Willingham's trial, his wife left the  
house to shop for Christmas gifts for their three children — Amber, a  
2-old-girl; and Karmon and Kameron, 1-year-old twins. Willingham said  
that he awoke after hearing Amber cry for help. The house was filled  
with smoke, he said, and he was unable to rescue the children and  
fled the house. They died.

Willingham was executed by lethal injection in February 2004,  
maintaining his innocence to the end. While strapped on the gurney in  
the execution chamber, Willingham declared, "I am an innocent man,  
convicted of a crime I did not commit."

At the time, some arson experts were already raising questions about  
the trial testimony. Among them was Gerald Hurst, a veteran arson  
investigator from Austin, Texas, who has a doctorate in chemistry  
from Cambridge University.

 Hurst said he had been contacted by Willingham's family,  
independently investigated the case and concluded that the fire had  
been started accidentally. However, reports he wrote at the time did  
not persuade appellate courts to overturn the conviction or Gov. Rick  
Perry to stay the execution.

"I hope this report will have a broad impact," Hurst said. "This case  
is the tip of the iceberg."

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