Another one of David Brooks's recommended essays of the year, David Grann's "Trial by Fire" is a masterful piece of journalism about how law failed Cameron Todd Willingham, who was most likely wrongfully executed for arson in the fire that killed his three daughters.
In Brooks's words, "Grann painstakingly describes how bogus science may have swayed the system to kill an innocent man, but at the core of the piece there are the complex relationships that grew up around a man convicted of burning his children. If you can still support the death penalty after reading this piece, you have stronger convictions than I do."
2 comments:
The essay on Cameron Todd Willingham is a must-read. When the system makes a mistake, it always closes ranks, and it is especially chilling when it does so even when the implication is state-sponsored murder.
There is more: Gov. Rick Perry of Texas has actively stymied any investigation into the process by which both the Texas prison board and he made the decision not to commute the sentence, even despite mounting evidence to the contrary. There are a lot of <a href="http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/cameron-todd-willingham/2009/10/>good links</a> here about the cover-up. Sadly, especially in a state like Texas, the political incentives are in favor of aggressive support of the death penalty. BTW, I highly recommend watching Errol Morris' brilliant documentary, The Thin Blue Line, of one instance of a miscarriage of justice in Texas and how the police conspired to cover up their misdeeds.
updated
Rebuttal: "Trial by Fire: Did Texas execute an innocent man?", by David Grann, The New Yorker
Dudley Sharp
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2009/10/cameron-todd-willingham-media-meltdown.html
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