Cameron todd willingham, and paid the ultimate price with his life. The state of Texas executed Cameron Todd Willingham by lethal injection in 2004, despite the fact that controversial evidence was used to convict him in the first place.
Now, further evidence has emerged which could indicate that a key witness for the prosecution testified against Willingham in return for a secret promise to have his own sentence cut.
Anti-death penalty campaigners claim an innocent man was wrongly put to death.
THE CRIME
On December 23, 1991, a fire ripped through the Willingham family’s home in Corsicana, Texas.
The blaze claimed the lives of Willingham’s three daughters: Amber Louisel, who was two, along with one-year-old twins Karmon Diane and Kameron Marie.
Willingham, who was a 23-year-old unemployed mechanic at the time, said he woke from a nap to find his house filled with smoke and was unable to find his sleeping children before escaping the flames.
His wife, Stacy Kuykendall, was not home at the time, and Willingham sustained minor burns in the fire. Prosectors claimed he deliberately lit it to cover up abuse claims.
Willingham was convicted of murdering his three daughters by arson in 1992 and was executed on February 17, 2004.
He claimed he was innocent right up until his death, using his last words to say: “The only statement I want to make is that I am an innocent man convicted of a crime I did not
commit.”
His relatives began a campaign to clear his name and human rights groups, including Amnesty International, claimed Texas had indeed executed an innocent man.
THE DOUBT
Willingham’s execution is considered to have been the most controversial during then-Texas Governor (and potential 2016 presidential candidate) Rick Perry’s entire tenure.
In 2009, an investigative report found a case of arson couldn’t be sustained. An expert hired by the Texas Forensic Science Commission said the original fire marshal’s testimony in 1992 was “more characteristic of mystics or psychics”.
Just two days before the commission was due to discuss the report, Perry replaced the chair of the nine-person commission and two other members. The new chair cancelled the meeting.
A year later, the Texas Forensic Science Commission ruled that the evidence proving an act of arson was based entirely on “flawed science”.
Despite several appeals to the Governor during the lead-up to Willingham’s execution, Perry didn’t stop it. When asked about allegations he had executed an innocent man, he only said: “He was a wife-beater.”
NEW EVIDENCE?
John H. Jackson, the former Navarro County prosecutor who handled the case in 1992, once told CNN Willingham was a psychopathic killer who murdered his three children. Last August, anti-death penalty group The Innocence Project filed a grievance which asked the State Bar of Texas to investigate Jackson.
It alleged that he “fabricated and concealed evidence,” including documents indicating that a jailhouse informant, Johnny Webb, received special treatment in exchange for his testimony. Jackson denied the existence of such a deal.
The handling of the case is now under investigation by the State Bar of Texas, according to The Washington Post.
Journalist group The Marshall Project, which focuses on criminal justice issues, has said Willingham’s case could become the first to show “conclusively that an innocent man was put to death in the modern era of capital punishment.”
THE TESTIMONY
Webb testified that, while he was being held in the Navarro County jail alongside Willingham, the accused killer confessed to setting the fire to cover up his wife’s abuse of one of their daughters. Both the abuse and arson claims were later found to be untrue, The Marshall Project says.
However, Webb claims Jackson threatened him with a life sentence unless he testified against Willingham, The Washington Post reports.
“I did not want to see Willingham go to death row and die for something I damn well knew was a lie and something I didn’t initiate,” Webb said.
“I lied on the man because I was being forced by John Jackson to do so,” Webb said. “I succumbed to pressure when I shouldn’t have. In the end, I was told, ‘You’re either going to get a life sentence or you’re going to testify.’ He coerced me to do it.”
Now, further evidence has emerged which could indicate that a key witness for the prosecution testified against Willingham in return for a secret promise to have his own sentence cut.
Anti-death penalty campaigners claim an innocent man was wrongly put to death.
THE CRIME
On December 23, 1991, a fire ripped through the Willingham family’s home in Corsicana, Texas.
The blaze claimed the lives of Willingham’s three daughters: Amber Louisel, who was two, along with one-year-old twins Karmon Diane and Kameron Marie.
Willingham, who was a 23-year-old unemployed mechanic at the time, said he woke from a nap to find his house filled with smoke and was unable to find his sleeping children before escaping the flames.
His wife, Stacy Kuykendall, was not home at the time, and Willingham sustained minor burns in the fire. Prosectors claimed he deliberately lit it to cover up abuse claims.
Willingham was convicted of murdering his three daughters by arson in 1992 and was executed on February 17, 2004.
He claimed he was innocent right up until his death, using his last words to say: “The only statement I want to make is that I am an innocent man convicted of a crime I did not
commit.”
His relatives began a campaign to clear his name and human rights groups, including Amnesty International, claimed Texas had indeed executed an innocent man.
THE DOUBT
Willingham’s execution is considered to have been the most controversial during then-Texas Governor (and potential 2016 presidential candidate) Rick Perry’s entire tenure.
In 2009, an investigative report found a case of arson couldn’t be sustained. An expert hired by the Texas Forensic Science Commission said the original fire marshal’s testimony in 1992 was “more characteristic of mystics or psychics”.
Just two days before the commission was due to discuss the report, Perry replaced the chair of the nine-person commission and two other members. The new chair cancelled the meeting.
A year later, the Texas Forensic Science Commission ruled that the evidence proving an act of arson was based entirely on “flawed science”.
Despite several appeals to the Governor during the lead-up to Willingham’s execution, Perry didn’t stop it. When asked about allegations he had executed an innocent man, he only said: “He was a wife-beater.”
NEW EVIDENCE?
John H. Jackson, the former Navarro County prosecutor who handled the case in 1992, once told CNN Willingham was a psychopathic killer who murdered his three children. Last August, anti-death penalty group The Innocence Project filed a grievance which asked the State Bar of Texas to investigate Jackson.
It alleged that he “fabricated and concealed evidence,” including documents indicating that a jailhouse informant, Johnny Webb, received special treatment in exchange for his testimony. Jackson denied the existence of such a deal.
The handling of the case is now under investigation by the State Bar of Texas, according to The Washington Post.
Journalist group The Marshall Project, which focuses on criminal justice issues, has said Willingham’s case could become the first to show “conclusively that an innocent man was put to death in the modern era of capital punishment.”
THE TESTIMONY
Webb testified that, while he was being held in the Navarro County jail alongside Willingham, the accused killer confessed to setting the fire to cover up his wife’s abuse of one of their daughters. Both the abuse and arson claims were later found to be untrue, The Marshall Project says.
However, Webb claims Jackson threatened him with a life sentence unless he testified against Willingham, The Washington Post reports.
“I did not want to see Willingham go to death row and die for something I damn well knew was a lie and something I didn’t initiate,” Webb said.
“I lied on the man because I was being forced by John Jackson to do so,” Webb said. “I succumbed to pressure when I shouldn’t have. In the end, I was told, ‘You’re either going to get a life sentence or you’re going to testify.’ He coerced me to do it.”
