"An investigation into claims that faulty evidence led Texas to execute a man in 2004 was at a “crucial point” when the state’s governor replaced three of its members this week, one of the three said Thursday.
Gov. Rick Perry’s shake-up of the Texas Forensic Science Commission came two days before it was to hear from the author of a scathing report in the case of Cameron Todd Willingham. That Friday session has been postponed indefinitely in the wake of Perry’s new appointments.
Willingham was put to death for killing his three daughters in a fire that arson investigators said had been deliberately set.
Yet death-penalty opponents say an impartial review of the case could lead to an unprecedented admission—that the state executed an innocent man.
Three reports, including one commissioned by the Forensic Science Commission, have concluded that arson was not the likely cause of the 1991 fire.
Perry’s office described the governor’s replacement of commission members as routine, saying the terms of Chairman Sam Bassett and commissioners Alan Levy and Aliece Watts had expired. But Levy said he told the governor’s office “that it would be disruptive to make the new appointments right now.”
“The commission was at a crucial point in the investigation,” he told CNN on Thursday.
Asked about the future of the Willingham investigation, he said, “I don’t know if it will ever be heard.”
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/01/texas.execution.probe/index.html
Three independant reports conclude that Arson was not the cause of the fire.
Kinda hard to overturn the conviction when the man gets executed...
