Was the real villain a faulty wire? ON THE morning of December 23rd 1991 a fire destroyed a home in Corsicana, Texas shared by Cameron Todd Willingham, his wife and their three daughters. The fire killed the girls; Mrs Willingham was at the Salvation Army store shopping for Christmas gifts. Mr Willingham survived. The next year he was convicted of setting the fire. He was sentenced to death and executed in 2004.His conviction rested on arson investigators’ findings and the testimony of Johnny Webb, a jailhouse informant who claimed that Willingham had confessed to him. Shortly before the execution, Willingham’s lawyers sent the governor and parole board a report from Gerald Hurst, another arson investigator, detailing multiple flaws in the first investigation. He concluded that the fire was caused by a space heater or faulty electrical wiring. Officials appear to have received this report before Willingham’s execution, but did nothing with it. Several independent arson investigators reached similar conclusions.Willingham insisted on his innocence, refusing to plead guilty even to avoid execution. Mr Webb testified that, as he was...
from The Economist: United States http://ift.tt/1mDKjJt
No comments:
Post a Comment