Bradley: No Death Penalty Debate on Commission
AUSTIN – If you want closure on questions of Cameron Todd Willingham's guilt or innocence, get comfortable.
The new chair of the Texas Forensic Science Commission says the board doesn't yet have the rules, staff or resources to be investigating allegations of faulty science in criminal cases -- including the high profile arson-murder case that led to Willingham's execution.
Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, who Gov. Rick Perry appointed chair two days before a now-canceled hearing on evidence in the Willingham case, says the commission will stick to its mission – analyzing forensic science mishaps – from here on out ...
Comments (2)
Duke
The fact is that the Hurst report was on Perry's desk before Willingham was executed. This is important simply because it contained evidence that the conviction was based on faulty forensic evidence. A reasonable man would have granted a stay to allow time to further examine the case but Perry went to San Antonio to campaign for a friend. Willingham died from a fatal injection, a homicide.
Despite Perry's efforts that wasn't the end of it. The thought that innocent people might be executed by the State of Texas was as abhorrent to many in our legislature as it is to Texans in general. The forensic science commission was established to review practices and to implement standards and procedures to ensure against a miscarriage of justice.
As might be expected, they hired a renowned scientist, Beyler, to review that an other cases. His report was made public before the commission received it and two days before the meeting Perry, unhappy with it's content, beheaded the commission. He replaced the chairman with Bradley, someone who owed Perry for his appointment in the first place.
It's nice that you provide more information about the Bradley but that task isn't complete until you make it clear that Bradley places criminal convictions above justice. He has long advocated the destruction of DNA evidence that has been collected in cases that have been 'settled' in a plea agreement so that it can't be used later to over-turn convictions. That's one more reason Perry had for selecting Bradley to chair the commission. Justice can be sacrificed if it creates hassle or embarrassment. See:
http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2007/02/das-dislike-criticisms-of-dna.html
All of this could have been avoided if Perry had been willing to come clean. Mistakes are more acceptable than denial and cover-up. I urged Perry to admit to his mistakes and to put the commission back on track so they could get standards, policies and procedures in place to guard against future injustices but to no avail. Now we have Bradley and more delay. Now, suddenly, they don't even have the resources to read the report they've received. It's a damned shame our governor can get away with these antics.
CaryGrant
The trial was clearly botched, which is really some of the problems with the death penalty in cases where the defendant has to almost prove innocence in Texas. If you stack enough circumstantial evidence, and you have a defense team without the resources or the time to do full blown scientific analysis, you get bad results sometimes. Now, no one is arguing that Willingham was a nice dude, but there was certainly a reasonable doubt that should have prevented conviction...even the jurors now admit that. If he were alive, he probably would not have been convicted on remand. I'm not sure anyone will ever know if he did it or not, but the physical evidence was at best inconclusive, and with no witnesses to the crime and really no motive, this was one where Perry just did what W did, and that is be a rubber stamp for the state.