McClatchy - "Is Perry trying to cover up wrongful execution in Texas?"

More on Texas Gov. Rick "Secede" Perry's abrupt decision to replace commissioners on panel reviewing possible execution of an innocent man:

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/politics/story/76452.html

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Perry removed Chairman Sam Bassett and commission members Alan Levy and Aliece Watts on Wednesday, two days before the obscure panel was scheduled to discuss a forensic report challenging the arson findings that that led to Cameron Todd Willingham’s execution in 2004.

Willingham, of Corsicana, was found guilty in the deaths of his three daughters in a 1991 fire. Willingham said that he was asleep in his house when the fire started and denied that he deliberately killed his daughters.

In telephone interviews, the commission members who got the boot said they were surprised and disappointed with Perry’s decision to replace them and expressed concern that the shake-up could disrupt or at least slow the pace of the panel’s inquiry. Levy is a top prosecutor in the Tarrant County district attorney’s office. Watts, who lives in Burleson, is a forensic scientist at Integrated Forensic Laboratories in Euless. Bassett is an Austin attorney.

The panel had been scheduled to meet today in Irving to hear expert Craig Beyler, who authored the report challenging the conclusions of the arson investigation. The meeting was canceled after the dismissals.

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This case is dynamite for Texas, and for the nation as well. It is hard to summon a reasonable doubt that an innocent man was executed, and executed in the absence even of any crime occurring at all.

Sad thing is I think this would have gone nowhere had Perry not be in a real contest with KBH for Governor. Her friends will guarantee that this gets some airtime. Sadder still is that while she is much more subtle than he is, the same sort of crap will still go on if she wins.

L-

1. That was horrible!
2. Somebody has to pay!
3. That there guy can't afford a lawyer!
4. He looks guilty to me!
5. Do we really have to have a trial?
6. Godless liberal judges expect actual evidence ...
7. So? Let's just make some shit up!
8. He's lucky we didn't just hang him on his way to court!
9. Um, if we start overturning convictions, people will start doubting the system ...
10. Executions always make sad eyes smile again!