Arson Experts Dismiss Evidence that Led to Texas Execution

A report compiled by five of the nation’s top arson experts has concluded that Texas executed a man based on faulty science and unreliable evidence. Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in Texas in 2004 for a crime of arson in which his 3 children died. Based on independent reviews of the evidence used to convict Willingham, the experts called for a re-investigation of the case after finding that it was based on interpretations by fire investigators that have been scientifically dispoved. The experts noted that these same faulty findings led to the 2004 exoneration and pardon of a second Texas man, Ernest R. Willis, who was freed from death row after serving 17 years for a 1986 arson-murder of two women. According to the report, prosecution witnesses in both cases interpreted fire indicators like cracked glass and burn marks as evidence that the fires had been set, when more up-to-date technology showed that the indicators could just as well have indicated an accidental fire.

“These two outcomes are mutually exclusive. Willis cannot be found ‘actually innocent’ and Willingham executed based on the same scientific evidence,” noted attorney Barry Scheck, who heads the New York-based Innocence Project, which requested this most recent independent investigation of the two cases by five unpaid arson experts. Their report echoed the findings of a 2004 Chicago Tribune investigation that also concluded that arson experts who testified against Willingham based their findings on faulty science and disproven arson theories.

In their findings, the experts stated that many of the faulty theories used by state arson investigators, including deputy state fire marshal Manuel Vasquez, were simply lore and had been handed down by several generations of arson investigators who relied upon what they were told. “Each and every one of the ‘indicators’ listed by Mr. Vasquez means absolutely nothing,” the experts noted. They further concluded that the evidence was consistent with indicators “routinely created by accidental fires.” The report also revealed that many arson investigators are self-taught and “inept,” adding, “There is no crime other than homicide by arson for which a person can be sent to death row based on the unsupported opinion of someone who received all of his training ‘on the job.’ ”

Texas currently leads the nation in the number of people serving time for arson. The Innocence Project plans to turn over the report’s conclusions and findings to the Texas Forensic Science Commission, which state lawmakers created in 2005 to oversee the integrity of crime laboratories.