The Innocence Project assembled five of the nation’s leading independent arson experts to review the evidence in the case, and this prestigious group issued a 48-page report finding that none of the scientific analysis used to convict Willingham was valid. Months after Willingham was executed, the Chicago Tribune published an investigative report that raised questions about the forensic analysis. Willingham was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville on February 17, 2004. Documents obtained by the Innocence Project show that state officials received that report but apparently did not act on it. Thirteen years later, in the days leading up to Willingham’s execution, his attorneys sent the governor and the Board of Pardon and Parole a report from Gerald Hurst, a nationally recognized arson expert, saying that Willingham’s conviction was based on erroneous forensic analysis. On October 29, 1992, he was sentenced to death. He was convicted based on the testimony of forensic experts who said they had determined that the fire was intentionally set and a jailhouse informant who said Willingham had confessed to him. Willingham said he was asleep in the home when the fire started and always maintained his innocence. His wife was at the Salvation Army buying Christmas presents for the girls.Īt Willingham’s 1992 trial, prosecutors claimed he intentionally set fire to his home in order to kill his own children. Willingham, who was asleep when the fire started, survived. On December 23, 1991, a fire destroyed the Corsicana, Texas, home Cameron Todd Willingham shared with his wife and three daughters, killing the three girls. Myths and Facts About the Willingham Case.Texas Forensic Science Commission - History and Key Documents. Final Texas Forensic Science Commission report on Willingham / Willis cases.Read more on the case below, along with news coverage and key documents. Since 2004, further evidence in the case has led to the inescapable conclusion that Willingham did not set the fire for which he was executed.The Texas Forensic Science Commission issued its report on the convictions of Cameron Todd Willingham and Ernest Willis on Aprecommending more education and training for fire investigators and implementing procedures to review old cases (the commission issued an addendum to the report on October 28, 2011).Īsk the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to investigate the wrongful execution of Cameron Todd Willingham! He always claimed his innocence, and the arson investigation used to convict him was questioned by leading experts before Willingham was executed. UPDATE (): Please note that certain links are greyed out because they are no longer working.Ĭameron Todd Willingham was executed in Texas in 2004 for allegedly setting a fire that killed his three young daughters 13 years earlier.
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