think tank forum

Questions were raised in 2009 by a report from an investigator hired by the Texas Forensic Science Commission that an innocent person may have been executed in Texas while Perry was governor. The report concluded that a fire allegedly set by Cameron Todd Willingham in 1991 to murder his three daughters could not have been arson. Willingham said that he was asleep in his house when the fire started and denied that he deliberately killed his children.[60] He was executed in Texas on February 17, 2004. Prior to his execution Dr. Gerald Hurst, an Austin scientist and fire investigator, reviewed the case and concluded there was "no evidence of arson, the same conclusion reached by other fire investigators. Hurst's report was sent to Perry's office as well as Board of Pardons and Paroles along with Willingham's appeal for clemency.[61] Neither responded to Willingham's appeals. "The whole case was based on the purest form of junk science," Hurst later said. "There was no item of evidence that indicated arson."[62]

The Texas Forensic Science Commission agreed to investigate in 2008 after defense attorneys claimed that Willingham was wrongfully convicted on the basis of flawed scientific evidence. Dr. Craig Beyler, a nationally recognized fire investigator in Baltimore, was commissioned by the state panel to conduct an independent review. He submitted a 55-page report, saying methods used in the investigation could not support a finding of arson.[60] The report, written by Dr. Beyler, found that "a finding of arson could not be sustained". Beyler said that key testimony from a fire marshal at Willingham's trial was "hardly consistent with a scientific mind-set and is more characteristic of mystics or psychics.”.[63]

Perry later expressed skepticism of findings by fire experts. He stated that regardless of findings by arson experts, court records showed evidence of Willingham’s guilt in charges that he intentionally killed his daughters in the fire. Perry is quoted in the report as stating of Willingham, “I’m familiar with the latter-day supposed experts on the arson side of it”, but court records provide “clear and compelling, overwhelming evidence that he was in fact the murderer of his children”, despite alleged scientific evidence to the contrary. He also noted that the defense team had ample opportunity to cross-examine the prosecution's expert witnesses at the trial and to present their own expert witnesses, as well as to raise these issues when appealing the verdict and penalty in State and federal court [64]

Willingham's wife, Stacy Kuykendall, has gone on record[65] stating her firm belief that Willingham murdered her children.

On October 2009, Perry replaced three members of Texas Forensic Science Commission just two days before it was to hear from Dr. Beyler, the author of the latest of three reports to conclude that arson was not the likely cause of the 1991 fire. As a result, the hearing was postponed indefinitely, and critics of the governor accused him of trying to quash the Willingham probe.[66] Perry said the commission’s inquiry will continue, saying that his decision to replace the three commission members was part of the normal appointments process.[60]

Ousted head of the forensics panel, Samuel Bassett, has stated he felt pressure from Perry's office and that they felt the Beyler report was a "waste of State money" and that the Willingham investigation should be a lower priority. He went on to say that they indicated they were not happy with the course of the Willingham investigation and hinted at reducing the commission's funding.[67]