Texans: Did we execute an innocent man?

[Liberal_in_LA]

Texans: Did we execute an innocent man?

By the CNN Wire Staff
July 23, 2010 1:52 p.m. EDT

Todd Willingham said he was innocent but was executed in February 2004 for the arson murders of his three kids.STORY HIGHLIGHTS
The Texas Forensic Sciences Commission is meeting
On the agenda is a legal opinion about the panel's jurisdiction
Critics accuse the governor of trying to short-circuit the review of a 2004 execution

(CNN) -- A Texas state board revisited questions surrounding a 2004 execution on Friday amid warnings from critics of the controversial execution that the panel is trying to bury its own critical review of the case.

Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in 2004, 13 years after a fire killed his three daughters. Prosecutors argued that Willingham deliberately set the 1991 blaze -- but three reviews of the evidence by outside experts have found the fire should not have been ruled arson.

The last of those reports was ordered by the Texas Forensic Sciences Commission, which has been looking into Willingham's execution since 2008. But a September 2009 shake-up by Texas Gov. Rick Perry has kept that panel from

reviewing the report, and the commission's new chairman has ordered a review of its operating rules. Critics say that may kill the probe.

"They are attempting permanently to keep the investigation from continuing and moving on, and I do believe it's because they don't like the direction the evidence is leading," Willingham's cousin, Pat Cox, said Thursday.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/07/23/texas.execution.probe/index.html?iref=NS1

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. a cover-up of a cover-up?

Texas Law, indeed.

[BakedAtAMileHigh]

2. Not Just ONE man, Texass! C'mon, you know better than that!

You've killed quite a few innocent men in the name of just-us, haven't you? Don't let one more slow you down.

[Hydra]

3. I heard about this before

And how many innocent people have we killed or put in jail forever?

I think, perhaps, I don't want to know.

[sui generis]

4. and I'm just curious how not making this 100% transparent is

different than aiding and abetting a murder?

Here's the lawsuit I would bring against everyone taking part in the cover up: what information did they have, and when did they have it or have access to it on the coverup timeline.

If covering up the state sanctioned murder of an innocent man for political gain isn't a capital crime, I don't know what is.

[Bluebear]

5. "AN" innocent man??? Yeah, just one.

Holy toledo.

[dtexdem]

6. Not the pertinent question. That is:

how many innocent people has Texas executed in the past decade?

[EOTE]

7. I'd be damned surprised if it was just one.

I have almost zero doubts that Willingham was innocent. The death penalty needs to go. That's all there is to it.

[Horse with no Name]

8. If this is the guy from Corsicana

Then yep, I think we did.

[MiniMe]

9. Was W Governernor then?

[Cal33]

10. In 2004 W was president.

[MiniMe]

11. Damn. I thought it was 1994

I misread the OP