Harris County Judge Kevin Fine is presiding over a dramatic hearing that, in essence, has placed the Texas death penalty on trial. (As the picture to the left suggests, Judge Fine is not your average jurist. Do the tats suggest an affinity with the accused?)
According to the Houston Chronicle, “Defense lawyers for John Edward Green are arguing that Texas has executed two innocent defendants, and the procedures surrounding the death penalty in Texas are unconstitutional because there are not enough safeguards.” (more…)
The comments after this piece, like the comments my post have thus far received, argue that due process protections and normal evidentiary standards should only apply to good people. Consider this quote from Winston Churchill, a champion of criminal justice reform: (more…)
Not that most Americans would care, but it appears that Texas executed another innocent man in 2000. This story from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram relates the sad fate of Claude Jones, a St. Jacinto man convicted of killing a liquor store clerk in the course of an armed robbery in 1989.
Prosecutors showed the jury a single hair that they claimed belonged to Jones. They couldn’t be sure, mind you, and no DNA test was conducted, but they were pretty sure.
But that wasn’t enough for a conviction, corroborating testimony was required. Enter Timothy Jordan. In exchange for a lenient sentence, he testified that he had served as an accomplice and that Jones was the trigger man.
Three years after Jones was executed, Jordan recanted his testimony. Need you ask why? He was threatened with dire consequences if he refused to cooperate with prosecutors. We’ve seen this movie before, haven’t we?
George W. Bush was fixin’ to leave the governor’s mansion for bigger and better things when he gave Jones’ execution the thumbs up. No one on his staff mentioned that the hair that so impressed jurors had not been tested.
Now it has and we know for a fact that the hair did not belong to Jones. (more…)
Anthony Graves is back in the free world after eighteen years of hell.
Charles Sebesta, the prosecutor who sent Graves to death row, still thinks he nailed the right man. If you asked the Texas Rangers who conducted the “investigation” they would probably agree with Sebesta.
According to the state’s theory of the crime, Graves teamed up with Robert Earl Carter to brutally murder Bobbie Davis, 45; her 16-year-old daughter, Nicole; and four of Davis’ grandchildren in August of 1992. The victims died from hammer blows, repeated stabbings, and bullet wounds. Their house was then torched in a clumsy attempt to conceal evidence. It was the most brutal crime in the history of Burleson County. (more…)
The Frontline treatment of the Cameron Todd Willingham saga is gripping, balanced and provocative. Don’t worry if you missed it; you can watch the entire program online.
Hour-long documentaries are frequently crammed with fluff and filler, but the Willingham case demands in-depth treatment to be understood and “Death by Fire” delivers. Here are some of the conclusions: (more…)
The PBS program Frontline will be airing a program on the Cameron Todd Willingham story, “Death by Fire“, beginning October 19. Click on the link to watch a 30 second promo. I have pasted the text version of the teaser below.
Several controversial death penalty cases are currently under examination in Texas and in other states, but it’s the 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham — convicted for the arson deaths of his three young children — that’s now at the center of the national debate.
In Death by Fire, FRONTLINE’s season premiere, airing Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2010, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS (check local listings), FRONTLINE gains unique access to those closest to the Willingham case — meticulously examining the evidence used to convict Willingham, offering an in-depth portrait of those most impacted by the case, and exploring the explosive implications of the execution of a possibly innocent man. (more…)
A three-judge pane representing the 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin has ordered Judge Charlie Baird to put an immediate stop to a hearing into the case of Cameron Todd Willingham.
Here’s the good news: Judge Baird’s hearing concluded just before the order arrived.
Now the bad news: Judge Baird will not be able to hand down a formal ruling until the stay is lifted. (more…)
This opinion piece was published in the Houston Chronicle under the names of several authors, but the Amarillo Globe-News version simply mentions Jeff Blackburn, so I am assuming he is the author. “Stop presenting ‘junk science’ in capital trials” Blackburn says. You can find the heart of his argument pasted at the end of my remarks.
The focus here is on Texas, but the problem is nationwide. In the most recent Curtis Flowers trial, one ballistics expert testified that he could say with 100% certainty that the gun stolen from Doyle Simpson’s car was the murder weapon. A second expert restricted himself to the obvious: the evidence didn’t lend itself to 100% certainty about anything. All any competent ballistics expert could say for sure was that the evidence found at the crime scene was consistent with the .380 pistol allegedly stolen from Mr. Simpson’s car, but the shell casings could also have come from a similar weapon.
Blackburn concentrates on expert witnesses who don’t know what they are talking about; but a lot of expert testimony is biased in favor of the prosecution because that’s where the money is. Indigent defendants rarely have the money to hire their own experts and most capital defendants are indigent.
In Blackburn’s opinion, the Cameron Todd Willingham case isn’t primarily about the execution of an innocent man; it’s about junk science.
Here’s 
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