Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Grits for Breakfast

Criminal Law

: Grits for Breakfast

Shoddy forensics + jailhouse snitch = possible false conviction, execution in capital arson case

The Chicago Tribune reports that a consultant hired by the Texas Forensic Science Commission found the arson testimony that secured the conviction of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was later executed for a fire that killed his children, was shoddy and unscientific ("Cameron Todd Willingham: Expert says fire for which father was executed was not arson," Aug. 25). According to the Tribune:In a withering critique, a nationally known fire scientist has told a state commission on forensics that Texas fire investigators had no basis to rule a deadly house fire was an arson -- a finding that led to the murder conviction and execution of Cameron Todd Willingham.The finding comes in the first state-sanctioned review of an execution in Texas, home to the country's busiest death chamber...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on August 25, 2009 (boomark / email).