Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Lethal Injection

Criminal Law

: Lethal Injection

Scott Cobb: "I did feel some pressure from them, yes," says Former Chair of Texas Forensic Science Commission about Rick Perry

The Chicago Tribune, which wrote a lengthy article about Todd Willingham in December 2004 that first brought the case to national attention, has a new article quoting the replaced chair of the Texas Forensic Science Commission, Samuel Bassett, saying that Governor Rick Perry pressured the committee. Bassett told the Chicago Tribune that months earlier, he was twice called to meetings with the Republican governor's top attorneys. At one meeting, he said, they expressed unhappiness with the course of the commission's investigation."I was surprised that they were involving themselves in the commission's decision-making," said Bassett, an Austin attorney. "I did feel some pressure from them, yes." and According to Bassett, the governor's attorneys questioned the cost of the inquiry and asked why a fire scientist from Texas could not be hired to examine the case instead of the expert from Maryland that the panel ultimately settled on...continue to full post

Full post as published by Lethal Injection on October 12, 2009 (boomark / email).