Texas Democratic Party: Moving Texas Forward

Just months before the controversial removal of three members of a state commission investigating the forensics that led to a Texas man’s 2004 execution, top aides to Gov. Rick Perry tried to pressure the chairman of the panel over the direction of the inquiry, the chairman has told the Tribune.

Samuel Bassett, whom Perry replaced on the Texas Forensic Science Commission two weeks ago, said he twice was called to meetings with Perry’s top attorneys. At one of those meetings, Bassett said he was told they were unhappy with the course of the commission’s investigation.

“I was surprised that they were involving themselves in the commission’s decision-making,” Bassett said. “I did feel some pressure from them, yes. There’s no question about that.”

A Tribune investigation in 2004 raised the possibility that Perry, who was governor when Cameron Todd Willingham was executed, approved the lethal injection of an innocent man. That story revealed fundamental flaws in the arson theories used to convict Willingham.

In a clemency plea four days before the execution, Willingham’s attorney raised questions about the forensics in the case. Perry has said he examined the information. But he did not delay the execution.

In the years since the Tribune brought the Willingham case to light, it has slowly begun to draw national attention because of its potential importance in the death penalty debate. Perry has downplayed a series of reviews by fire scientists who sharply criticized the original Willingham investigation, going so far as to ridicule the scientists by describing them as “latter-day supposed experts.”

To read more go to the Chicago Tribune article.