Huffington Post had an article over the weekend about how a district court judge down in Austin in 2010 was going to exonerate Cameron Todd Willingham, who had been put to death for setting a fire to kill his three daughters. You may remember that new scientific evidence came to light after Willingham’s execution that suggested that the fire was not an arson.
The written exoneration was never made public, though, because a higher court criticized Judge Charlie Baird for not recusing himself from the case. Â Baird had previously upheld Willingham’s conviction when he served on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
The HuffPo piece says Baird was moved to come forward about this document after he read about the case of Carlos DeLuna, who a Columbia Law Review investigation says was wrongly executed for a crime he had nothing to do with. I suspect Baird’s motives may also have something to with his current bid to become Travis County district attorney.
What happened in the Willingham case is troubling, but this latest development seems like a non-story.
