In this week’s New Yorker, David Gann examines the case of Cameron Todd Williamson of Corsicana, executed in 2004 for arson in the deaths of his three children.  Late evidence in the case presented by one of the nation’s foremost fire scientists was ignored by the Board of Pardons and Paroles and by Governor Perry. After questions were raised by the Chicago Tribune, the state forensics commission hired an outside investigator who recently reported:
“…Â investigators in the Willingham case had no scientific basis for claiming that the fire was arson, ignored evidence that contradicted their theory, had no comprehension of flashover and fire dynamics, relied on discredited folklore, and failed to eliminate potential accidental or alternative causes of the fire.”
Read the whole thing. In my last round on this subject, pro-death penalty advocates told me that at least the death penalty, if nothing else, acts a deterrent for the person who is being executed. However facile that argument may be, it does seem indisputable — until you read of a case like this.
