Faulty Testimony Sent 2 to Death Row, Panel Finds – New York Times
Faulty evidence masquerading as science sent two men to death row for arson in Texas and led to the execution of one of them, a panel of private fire investigators concluded in a report released Tuesday in Austin.
[…]
The report examined prosecution arson testimony in the trials of two men: Ernest R. Willis, convicted of killing two women in a house fire in 1986 in Iraan, and Cameron T. Willingham, convicted of burning his home in Corsicana in 1992, killing his three young daughters.
Mr. Willingham was executed by lethal injection on Feb. 17, 2004, after Gov. Rick Perry rejected a plea for a last-minute stay, once the courts and the State Board of Pardons and Paroles had declined to intervene.
Mr. Willis was exonerated and pardoned on Oct. 6, 2004, and collected almost $430,000 for 17 years of wrongful imprisonment.
If you are against killing inocent people, you have to be against the death penalty. Anything else just doesn’t make sense.
Isn’t it time the United States of America joined the rest of the civilized world and abandon the death penalty. Its really heartbreaking to see how barbaric and faulty todays system is.