A pre­vi­ous­ly undis­closed let­ter writ­ten by jail­house infor­mant Johnny E. Webb, a cru­cial wit­ness in the tri­al of Cameron Willingham (pic­tured) in Texas, indi­cates that Webb’s sen­tence may have been reduced in exchange for his tes­ti­mo­ny that Willingham had con­fessed to inten­tion­al­ly start­ing a house fire that killed his three daugh­ters. The defense had nev­er been informed of the exis­tence of any deal between Webb and pros­e­cu­tors in the case. Willingham was exe­cut­ed in 2004, but he con­sis­tent­ly main­tained his inno­cence, and foren­sic evi­dence of arson in the case was lat­er dis­cred­it­ed. Webb tes­ti­fied that Willingham had con­fessed to him while they were held in the same jail, but lat­er recant­ed that tes­ti­mo­ny. Prosecutor John Jackson is now under inves­ti­ga­tion by the Texas State Bar for his han­dling of the Willingham case and the alleged deal with Webb. Webb’s 1996 let­ter to Jackson said, ​“Recently, as I was going over my case notes, I noticed that you had told me that the charge of aggra­vat­ed rob­bery would be dropped, or low­ered, to rob­bery.… You told me this would be done before my trans­fer to TDC [Texas Department of Corrections].” He added that if Jackson did not take care of the change, Webb might file a court motion, pos­si­bly mak­ing their deal pub­lic. In a recent inter­view, Webb told The Marshall Project, ​“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. I lied on the man because I was being forced by John Jackson to do so. 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.”

(M. Possley, ​“A dad was exe­cut­ed for deaths of his 3 girls. Now a let­ter casts more doubt.,” The Marshall Project, March 9, 2015.) See Innocence and Arbitrariness.

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