Cameron WIllingham case and Perry: The Texas Forensic Panel is not allowed to issue an opinion without interference
Sep 14th, 2011 | 15 responses
about whether Perry signed the writ to execute Cameron justly… even though it is thought now that Cameron may have been innocent.
234 people executed during Perry’s governorship. That’s equal to more than a third of the small town population where I grew up. I sit here imagining every third house in the northwoods having the hearse pull up.
It seem odd that some politicos say they are pro life and pro death as though in a schizoid fugue…. but not prolife if it is x kind of human being, vs this other kind of human being y.
Alright that the old men send the young to die in wars. Alright to kill those who may have or did take someone else’s life.
Alright to let people die if they cant afford a kidney transplant. Ok to kill peope who might be innocent with an ‘oh well, whatever.’
Alright to keep a brain dead woman who has lain inert for years, alive ad infinitum.
Alright to insist every zygote be brought to fruition.
Alright to allow children to grow up in hell where likelihood of reaching adulthood is slim and liklihood of being murdered is high.
Alright to spend the money and take to time to travel to Africa and encourage legislation that would convict and execute persons who are homosexual.
I’d only say, if life is precious, then all human beings are precious. Not cherry picking according to personal preferences.
Rick Perry says the word Justice Justice Justice alot. It reminds me of a biblical verse about the hypocrite running around averring “Peace peace peace!!!” but those under the thumb of the ruling junta are given NO peace whatsoever.
I remember long ago sitting through emergency service classes, overhearing joking by some about saving first the beautiful young woman and leaving the middle aged paunchy guy til last. One wonders if to some that’s more than a joke.
Triage is serious and respectful regard in the extreme for human life. You save who is bleeding to death first, and the one who has a common cold waits til all those most afflicted are stabilized. But ALL are tended to with heightened attention.
Deciding who is worthy to live based on a justice principle that has no parity with decency, with understanding… (understanding is different than asserting knowledge)… seems to be weighing fairness, honesty, justice and remediation on a scale with only one dish, and half the incremental weights missing. So that anything weighed thusly is crowed over as ‘fair weight’ when in fact regarding the sanctity of life, it is a false read out.
Between being pajama buddies with Merck that manufactures a hugely profitable prophylactic drug given to young girls to ward off uterine cancer if/ when they develop a sexually transmitted disease somewhere in life that might cause eventual cancer in some… and pushing that vaccine made by buddy Merck that now appears then to be paid back to Perry in dollars for his eternal and infernal re-election campaign…
between what appears to be another grotesque conflict of interest with Perry interfering with a forensics panel… I believe we will see Perry on the defensive more and more, for he cannot undo what he has done, and the last thing Perry wants is to be found complicit in executing an innocent man… or being exposed as having his arm around one girl (the young women he pushes vaccinations on to prevent HPV) and his other arm around his other girlfriend, Merck.
CODA
Elijah Sweete and I have both covered this case at TMV, in earlier posts, specifically Perry’s odd and seeming manipulative replacement of 1/3 of the commission members who were inquiring about the Cameron Willingham case when issues were raised about his innocence.
Cameron Todd Willingham, 36 years old was convicted of murder and executed for the deaths of his three young children by arson at the family home in Corsicana, Texas.
In 2009, Willingham’s sentence was strongly question by David Grann an investigative reporter in a long article in The New Yorker. He interviewed arson investigation experts and advances in fire science since the 1992 investigation. He put forth that the prosecutor’s evidence for arson “was unconvincing, and that had this information been available at the time of trial, Willingham would have been acquitted.”
“According to an August 2009 investigative report by an expert hired by the Texas Forensic Science Commission, the original claims of arson were doubtful.The Corsicana Fire Department disputes the findings, stating that the expert’s report overlooked several key points in the record. The case has been further complicated by allegations that Texas Governor Rick Perry impeded the investigation by replacing three of the nine commission members in an attempt to change the commission’s findings; Perry denies the allegations.”
15 Responses to “Cameron WIllingham case and Perry: The Texas Forensic Panel is not allowed to issue an opinion without interference”
It seems that for Gov. Perry…
“Kill’em all and let God sort them out”
…is the best way to govern.
That spotlight is only going to get brighter…Perry is in for one heck of a ride.
Oh but life is not precious.
Life abounds can’t you see? We have plenty of low life forms for hang’n or dying on a pauper’s gurney. “Let’em die” is the cheer or Tea Bagger’s chant. We must appease the wanton masses and what glory we receive for the pleasure? Why a Presidents title none the less! The squeamish be damned, it’s full speed to Hades for the impure stock because a life to step on your way up is but an easy step after all. Social Darwinism is the battle hymn of the corporate republic and our manifest destiny!
…look away…look away….oh I wish I was in the land of cotton….
IF Perry ends up being the GOP candidate this issue will end up being one more nail in his coffin (I hope). Funny thing about liabilities when it comes to modern day republicans/TP’ers, it seems the more flawed and controversial their champions are, the more they like them. What’s up with that? And what kind of person would work toward insuring the execution of someone who they knew was very possibly innocent? And what kind of people would cheer the governor of a state for having the highest rate of executions?
JS, the things that independents and Democrats consider to be liabilities are considered by the core Republicans to be positives. Remember the Perry supporter who said “It takes balls to execute an innocent man.”.
Couple of thoughts
One when the Cameron Willingham the science used at the time was the standard. Well after the case his cause was the catalyst for real scientific advancement in forensic arson investigation but at the time the standards were different. Tho the arson report was flawed there were many other reasons and much evidence against Cameron Willingham. This was not a trial for arson but for child murder. The court rulings indicated that there was a likelihood that without any arson evidence given at all Cameron Willingham still would of been found guilty of murder.
Two The HPV vaccination story was a huge deal here in Texas. In no small part because of the whole Executive Order deal. Things like that don’t go over well. I was against the idea of requiring vaccinations Thur an executive order then and now. I must add tho to think that a few thou donation is all it would take to bribe Perry is pretty absurd. The guy raises money hand over fist but he gets bought for a few grand donation? Merck isn’t even close to what Perry would consider a big contributor. He had over 200 that gave over 100,000 in the last 10 years. He did have a buddy working for Merck and who better to convince you that something is a good idea. Other than that I really see no good evidence Perry is all that close to Merck. By the way what qualifies one as “Pajama Buddies”
jim-
Yes, thanks for reminding me. I think I’m going to be sick.
EElise-
Well Republicans are dangerous to people living on entitlements. Especially if those people starve to death without them, don’t you think?
Republicans are also dangerous to people without health insurance, and, as stated during the Tea bagger debate; “let them die” pretty well states their goal.
Wanting to kill people, because they are poor makes you pretty evil in my mind.
These truths should spread across the country like a wildfire, indeed the world.
Yeah, child murder by starting a fire that burned the kid to death. If he didn’t start the fire, he didn’t kill the kid. The court didn’t indicate anything of the sort in what I read. Fire killed the kid.
Few thou? Over time they gave him $28,000 and are likely set to pound his pack full of dough for the primary. But it’s the fact that his chief of staff is a corporate lobbyist and the very source of the money that should reap public scorn even more than the money fie in with forced child experimentation.
Texas has bad reputation for corruption. A very bad reputation.
“234 people executed during Perry’s governorship”
If one is a proponent of the death penalty, one must admit that an occasional innocent person would be executed. In accepting the death penalty as a deterrence to vicious crimes or to punish “truly evil people”, a likely consequence is that innocents may die.
The converse is that criminal trial may find the guilty – not guilty, but never claim innocence. I’ll take a Casey Anthony or OJ Simpson over this arson case any day…
I think rudi makes some valid points.
I’d add:
1) executing an innocent person would be the worst thing a state could do. It would simply be the worst abuse of state power in existence. In a world of unknowns, flawed eyewitness documentation, exoneration of prior death-row inmates with DNA evidence, etc, etc, I conclude that execution with a hair-breadth chance of mistaken identity is un-excusable and the gravest state sin.
2) if execution deters crime, if “eye for an eye” is the correct way to deter crime, why on earth does Texas have the “need” to execute so many people. Clearly people aren’t deterred.
The older I get the more I see this punitive action as another method of southern lynching, made legal through the state, just a modification of Jim Crow law blatant.
@JeffP
I’m waiting for pigs to fly and Teabaggers to admit a few innocents must die to continue with Old Testament justice…
Well I hesitate to go down to your level with the name calling but since you started it. If you truly have those beliefs then it “makes you pretty stupid in my mind”. There are no nationally elected pollutions of any party that desire or promote people starving to death. There are none that wish to refuse care to people with life threatening conditions. You expand statements to an absurd point and then try and try to assert that it’s the default position for not just a political party but pretty much half the population of the US.
Yep that’s pretty stupid.
As to the $28,000 over 10 years. Texas has no limits on donations. That is .1% of what Perry has raised in that time. He has over 200 contributors that have put well over $100,000 each into his campaign. It’s chump change and the logic just isn’t there no matter how hard you push. Guess what Obama has more Lobbyist on his staff than Perry so he must be even a bigger crook right? Texas may be a lot of things but in the history of crooked politic ts it is barley a foot note.
@EEllis
Perry can/t be bought for a few thousands. How about $350,000, per the WSJ:
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2011/09/13/perrys-ties-to-merck-29500/?mod=google_news_blog
http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/09/rick-perrys-price-revealed
I think they should execute state governors for murder when their state murders an innocent man.
an eye for an eye…right?
Well Rudi since it was less than $30,000 to Perry and the rest just to an org that Perry is affiliated with I would say that my point stands. Merck is small potatoes as far as cash goes to Perry. Repeating it like it’s Watergate doesn’t change it or makes it true. Perry has prob spent more on his dry cleaning in those 10 years than Merck has given him. There is plenty to slam Perry for or to disagree with him about. Making crap up is just dumb.
Perry doesn,t sound likely to succeed,given his record of whats right and good for humanity as a ‘whole. such flaws in a character shows disregard for the complexities of the societies that we live in in which human interaction with the laws of government and laws inherent in each person is an essence of that moral ground.
overlooking and acting progressively to aims to ‘right’ a society may turn against these aspects and be resented with a maxin “the end justifies the means”.
The cost of a human life is never trivial or should be conceived by those in a position to decide his or her punishment is for the ‘good of society or collective agreement’and is creating its own obstacle to a positive, normal pursuit of happiness that we each desire for ourselves and look for in the other as a overarching whole.
I rather would like to be in a company of a person who admits his weak points and holds off until full deliberation, rather than someone who pushes through some ‘agenda’ of whats up with the ‘times’ or in mode.