By Chuck Lindell
The Austin American-Statesman
AUSTIN, Texas — A judge on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which has the power to overturn death sentences and halt executions, wants to improve the criminal justice system’s understanding of fire science in the wake of a possibly flawed arson investigation in the Cameron Todd Willingham case.
Willingham was executed in 2004 for killing his three young children by setting fire to his Corsicana house.
Judge Barbara Hervey said her interest in the issue was piqued by recent reports that Cameron’s conviction relied on bad science, now-disproved theories and personal bias from arson investigators.
“Science progresses all the time, and we need to have a better understanding of fire science,” Hervey said Tuesday.
Last week, Hervey ventured to the state archives building to read Willingham’s court file, which included the first report - by Austin chemist Gerald Hurst - to question the 1991 arson ruling.
The Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed that appeal, filed four days before Willingham’s execution, ruling that Hurst’s findings should have been raised earlier.
Hervey, who joined the court in 2001, said she came away from her reading with no conclusions about Willingham’s case but with a desire to have the Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit investigate fire science.
Hervey created the unit last year to improve the justice system in areas such as police interrogation, eyewitness identification and evidence preservation.
The panel includes politicians, lawyers, law enforcement members and legal experts.
“Arson is not something (courts) deal with on a regular basis,” Hervey said. “The one thing I think we can accomplish is to at least educate people” about improvements in fire science and arson investigative techniques.
The integrity unit, Hervey said, would complement work being done by the Texas Forensic Science Commission.
The commission made national news in August when a fire scientist it hired, Craig Beyler, concluded that the arson ruling in the Willingham fire was based on investigative techniques that barely resembled science.
Two weeks ago, the commission made news again when it postponed discussion of Beyler’s report after Gov. Rick Perry replaced its chairman and several other members.
In other news about the case:
* The recently ousted chairman of the Forensic Science Commission, Austin lawyer Sam Bassett, accused Perry aides of trying to pressure him over the Willingham investigation.
Bassett said lawyers for Perry, during private meetings in February and March, argued that the Willingham investigation exceeded the commission’s authority and that other investigations should receive a higher priority.
“They said this isn’t the kind of investigation the statute contemplated,” Bassett said. “I don’t know what their intent was, but I know after the meetings I did feel pressured about the investigation.”
Bassett said he told the aides, Deputy General Counsel Mary Anne Wiley and former General Counsel David Cabrales, that the investigation by Beyler - hired months earlier - would continue.
Wiley, a key Perry adviser on criminal justice issues, also sits on Hervey’s integrity unit.
Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle said the aides asked routine questions and were not trying to influence the investigation.
“Members of the governor’s staff...are expected to stay in routine contact with agencies and boards and commissions,” she said, noting that similar meetings were held with Bassett’s predecessor.
* The Senate Criminal Justice Committee has invited the science commission’s new chairman, Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, to give an update on the Willingham inquiry at a Nov. 10 public hearing in Austin.
“There’s obviously a lot of interest in this case, and we’ll want to see whether he intends to pursue the report” by Beyler, said Chairman John Whitmire, D-Houston.
Bradley declined to comment Tuesday, saying, “Out of respect for Senator Whitmire and his committee and my fellow commission members, I will hold my thoughts until the committee meets.”
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