“The only statement I want to make is that I am an innocent man – convicted of a crime I did not commit. I have been persecuted for 12 years for something I did not do.”
This is the voice of a dead man, sentenced to execution in Texas after 12 years in prison.
The man in question was Cameron Todd Willingham, convicted of arson which led to the deaths of his three young daughters. His children had died in a house fire in 1991. Since the conviction, it has recently been revealed that evidence in the court case was withheld by prosecutor John Jackson.
A petition reads “before, during, and after the 1992 trial, [Jackson] knew of the existence of evidence that tended to negate the guilt of Willingham, and failed to disclose that evidence to defence counsel.” Arson investigators were discredited during the case as experts who had “misinterpreted the evidence.”
John Jackson instead had jailhouse informant Johnny E. Webb (a man who claimed to have heard Willingham confess to arson while they were both in prison) testify that it was Willingham who had started the fire, in exchange for a reduced sentence and a better chance at parole. The testimony that Willingham had confessed to setting his house on fire was later recanted, and in 2014, Webb admitted that he had lied about the arson for a better plea bargain, to the Marshall Project.
Jackson’s conduct is now under scrutiny by the State of Texas after the petition, a formal complaint of misconduct, was lodged. The accusations are of falsifying official records, obstructing justice and withholding pertinent evidence during the course of proceedings.
Willingham maintained that he awoke inside his smoke and fire filled house, so thick that he was unable to locate his children and barely stumbled outside alive.
Webb had stated that, while in a Navarro County Jail, Willingham had confessed to him that the fire was a cover up of his abuse against his wife and children, yet autopsies had displayed no signs of abuse on his daughters. He was executed in 2004, maintaining his innocence until his last breath.
Webb later revealed that he was coerced into the confession by Jackson, who has since retired from his duties as a judge. “You’re either going to get a life sentence [for a robbery], or you’re going to testify.”[1]
[1] Possley, M. (2015, March 9). A dad was executed for deaths of his 3 girls. Now a letter casts more doubt. [The Washington Post]. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/letter-from-witness-casts-further-doubt-on-2004-texas-execution/2015/03/09/d9ebdab8-c451-11e4-ad5c-3b8ce89f1b89_story.html
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