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Pro Bono Effort Makes All the Difference Between Two Death Penalty Appeals

By John Bringardner

Earlier this month, The New Yorker ran an epic-length article on the trial, conviction and execution of Cameron Todd Willingham, a Texas man who was accused of setting his own house on fire and killing his three young children. Willingham was put to death in 2004, but writer David Grann details how the pseudo-science prosecutors relied on to show that the fire was not an accident, and a lackluster defense by court-appointed lawyers who couldn't disprove it, doomed Willingham to death by lethal injection. It's a haunting tale, and well-worth the long read. Grits for Breakfast provides a thorough roundup of commentary on the story, including a response from the prosecutor in the case, who is now a judge. Could Willingham, who never stopped protesting his innocence and chose to die rather than accept a guilty plea in exchange for a life sentence, have been saved if he'd had a better lawyer? It's a question most defendants must ask themselves after a guilty verdict, but in Willingham's case there's reason to believe he really could have walked away a free man if he had had counsel with more drive -- and money -- to defend him. As Grann writes, "Another...

Full post as published by Legal Blog Watch on September 21, 2009 (boomark / email).