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Bring comfort and closure

By Steve Hall

That's the title of an OpEd by Cory Session in today's Austin American-Statesman.  It's a must-read. As the brother of a man who was wrongfully convicted of crime he didn't commit, I am all too familiar with the pain that the relatives of Cameron Todd Willingham are going though now. My brother, Timothy Cole, died after serving 14 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. But my family was able to use a Court of Inquiry proceeding and a declaration of innocence to clear his name. That procedure provided us much comfort and closure. Rather than comfort and closure, Willingham's relatives are getting a first-hand education in Texas politics. Willingham, who was convicted of arson and murdering his three children, was executed by the state even though days before his execution a prominent arson scientist, Gerald Hurst, submitted a letter to the governor and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals explaining that the critical testimony used to prove that Willingham intentionally set the fire was based on outdated arson science...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on October 27, 2010 (boomark / email).