Reply #66: What report have you been reading? Many different arson experts including 1 hired for an independent [View All]

[peacebaby3]

investigation by the state have said that there was no proof of arson and that the arson investigators were awful. The testimony of witnesses at the scene changed over time as well.

Here's what the top arson expert hired by the independent commission had to say:

In 2005, Texas established a government commission to investigate allegations of error and misconduct by forensic scientists. The first cases that are being reviewed by the commission are those of Willingham and Willis. In mid-August, the noted fire scientist Craig Beyler, who was hired by the commission, completed his investigation. In a scathing report, he concluded that investigators in the Willingham case had no scientific basis for claiming that the fire was arson, ignored evidence that contradicted their theory, had no comprehension of flashover and fire dynamics, relied on discredited folklore, and failed to eliminate potential accidental or alternative causes of the fire. He said that Vasquez’s approach seemed to deny “rational reasoning” and was more “characteristic of mystics or psychics.” What’s more, Beyler determined that the investigation violated, as he put it to me, “not only the standards of today but even of the time period.”

An innocent man was executed in TX and I hope everyone will read this story and see what often happens in these situations:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/09/07/090907fa_fact_grann?currentPage=all

Most groups that do death penalty work don't have the time or resources to look for an innocent person who's been executed because they are too busy trying to stop the next person from being killed by the state. What group has been "combing through all the executions looking for a single wrongly executed person"? I'd sure like to know what group that is.