Governor Rick Perry defends execution of a Corsicana man in 2004.
Press Release Service – Wired PR News – Texas Governor Rick Perry defended the 2004 execution of a Corsicana man, convicted after his daughters died in a house fire, on Friday expressing skepticism of findings by fire experts. As reported by the Dallas Morning News, Perry stated that regardless of findings by arson experts, court records showed evidence of Cameron Todd Willingham’s guilt in charges that he intentionally killed his daughters in the fire.
Perry is quoted in the report as stating of Willingham, “I’m familiar with the latter-day supposed experts on the arson side of it” however court records provide “clear and compelling, overwhelming evidence that he was in fact the murderer of his children.”
Barry Scheck, co-director of the nonprofit Innocence Project group, is quoted as stating of Perry’s position, “Governor Perry refuses to face the fact that Texas executed an innocent man on his watch. Literally all of the evidence that was used to convict Willingham has been disproven – all of it. He is clearly refusing to face reality.”
Perry is further quoted as commenting on the issue, “I get a document that has all of the court process. It gives you all of his background, all of the court machinations on the legal side of it, and the recommendation of both my legal side and the courts. It’s pretty extensive amount of information… I have not seen anything that would cause me to think that the decision that was made by the courts of the state of Texas was not correct.”
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Photo Credit: Wikipedia: U.S. Air Force photo by Civ. Sandy Wassenmiller
