In 2004 Cameron Todd Willingham was exe­cut­ed in Texas for mur­der­ing his chil­dren by arson. Since then, numer­ous foren­sic fire experts have con­clud­ed that the evi­dence of arson pre­sent­ed at Willingham’s tri­al could not sup­port the con­clu­sion that he caused the fire. That same year, Ernest Willis was freed from death row in Texas after the pros­e­cu­tion con­clud­ed that his con­vic­tion and death sen­tence for arson were mis­tak­en. Texas has 742 offend­ers in state pris­ons for arson, and about 275 more defen­dants are con­vict­ed of the crime each year. Sen. Rodney Ellis, D‑Houston, who has pushed to cre­ate a com­mis­sion in Texas to explore ques­tion­able con­vic­tions, not­ed, ​“As sci­en­tif­ic meth­ods improve,” he said, ​“it’s a dis­tinct pos­si­bil­i­ty that we’re going to find more prob­lems in the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem.” One of the experts who exam­ined the evi­dence in the Willingham case and dis­putes the claims of arson is Gerald Hurst, a Cambridge-edu­cat­ed chemist, who said, ​“Accidental fires being turned into arsons is going on all the time.” He believes the core of the prob­lem is that inves­ti­ga­tors – most of whom began as police offi­cers and fire­fight­ers – have no science background.

According to the Dallas Morning News, one of the key doc­u­ments that now guides fire experts in Texas and else­where is ​“National Fire Protection Association 921,” which was pub­lished in 1992, after the Willis and Willingham fires. Before this doc­u­ment, ​“inves­ti­ga­tors were taught that fire burns upward, not down; that nor­mal fires burn more slow­ly and not as hot as those fueled by accel­er­ants; and that burn holes in the floor, cracked ​‘crazed’ glass and blis­ters in floors were signs of arson.”

The new guide, how­ev­er, states ​“a fire sends heat and gas to the ceil­ing, and once they reach a crit­i­cal tem­per­a­ture, a ​‘flashover’ occurs and every­thing in the room will be on fire. A flashover can hap­pen quick­ly – with­in three min­utes – and can leave all the signs that inves­ti­ga­tors once saw as arson evidence.”

One of the fire offi­cials who first inves­ti­gat­ed the Willingham fire was Corsicana assis­tant fire chief Douglas Fogg. He believes that the objec­tions to the tes­ti­mo­ny that con­vict­ed Willingham is the prod­uct of ​“bleed­ing hearts that are against the death penal­ty.” He sup­ports his con­clu­sions by not­ing that he wit­nessed Willingham’s behav­ior and talked to oth­ers who also wit­nessed how Willingham act­ed dur­ing the bat­tle to extin­guish the fire.

(C. Hoppe, ​“Are Texas arsons a case of bad sci­ence? Some experts think so,” Dallas Morning News, Sept. 13, 2009). See Innocence and Arbitrariness.

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