By Christy Hoppe
The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN — The Texas Forensic Science Commission’s inquiry into a flawed arson investigation that led to a Corsicana man’s execution is on hold for now, and it’s unclear how or when it will move forward, the commission’s new chairman said Tuesday.
Gov. Rick Perry appointed Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley last week, two days before a scheduled public hearing with experts critical of the evidence used in Cameron Todd Willingham’s murder-arson case. Bradley canceled the hearing, saying he and another new commissioner needed time to prepare.
Critics accused Perry of upending the board to suppress questions about the Willingham execution, which he refused to halt in 2004, despite an arson expert’s urgent warning that the investigation in the case was troublesome. The governor rejects that, saying the replacement of commission members when their terms expired was business as usual. He has said there is ample other evidence of Willingham’s guilt in the deaths of his three children in the 1991 house fire.
Bradley told The Dallas Morning News on Tuesday that he doesn’t know when the board will take up its investigations again. He said he needs time to review the commission’s two years’ worth of work and to study the role of its members and the process they should use in moving forward.
“It is too important as a symbolic case, and as much as a real case, for us not to finish that work,” Bradley said of the Willingham case. “But at the same time, I want to make sure the work is done in a way that is professional and has utmost integrity.”
Bradley said the timetable for the board to act is also unclear because the governor has two more positions to fill, and he wants to wait until all new members are on board.
Re-creating the wheel in the investigation is unnecessary, and the delay is impeding justice for others serving time under questionable arson convictions, said Barry Scheck, co-director of the Innocence Project, which has used DNA evidence to free dozens of Texas inmates and has enlisted experts to study the Willingham case.
“I can understand him wanting to do his homework, but I can’t understand in the final analysis why everything has to be brought to a halt,” Scheck said.
Arson scientist’s report
He said he believed Perry acted because the board was about to receive the independent analysis of noted arson scientist Craig Beyler, who was hired by the commission to review the Willingham investigation.
Beyler’s report, which has been released publicly, found no credible evidence of Willingham setting the fire. It said the arson evidence used was based on discredited techniques once common among fire investigators and wives’ tales about how fire behaves. He was scheduled to present his report to the commission last week.
“The Beyler report is personally embarrassing to Governor Perry. That’s the beginning and the end of it,” Scheck said. “The whole point of the Texas Forensic Science Commission was to establish an institution that was independent and would take forensic science out of politics. And Governor Perry has just put politics right back in it.”
The commission probably would not have gone so far as to declare that Willingham was probably innocent, though it might have eventually put a formal stamp of disapproval on the arson investigation in his case. And it could recommend to the Legislature standards to avoid such problems in the future.
No hurry to fill seats
Perry spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said there is no current timetable for filling the board positions.
Under state law, the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association submits a list of 10 attorneys for the governor to select from. That list was filed Sept. 4, with the top recommendation being the reappointment of Bradley’s predecessor as chairman, Sam Bassett.
“I recommend his reappointment under the strongest possible terms,” said forensic expert and commission member Dr. Sarah Kerrigan, in a letter dated Sept. 4.
Bradley said he did not seek appointment to the board or the chairmanship. His work in Williamson County is full time, and he also serves as chairman of a statewide committee on mental health services in the justice system.
But Bradley said he is excited about the role the forensic science commission can play in assuring the integrity of science in court cases.
The commission began in 2007, after scandals involving the shoddy work of the Houston forensic science lab and Texas taking the national lead in DNA exonerations.
Bradley said that looking back on cases to see if bad science played a role is important, but mostly as it applies to future cases.
“It is my experience that leadership is best applied to moving forward rather than looking back,” he said.
Bradley said he can’t satisfy critics who believe he was placed on the commission to stymie the Willingham investigation.
“All I can do is reassure people that ... from this day forward, all of the decisions the commission makes will be in the best interest of advancing forensic science in Texas and that there is no preconceived notion of how that should be done,” he said.
Copyright 2009 THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS