Forensic Science Commission Holding Secret Closed Meetings in Todd Willingham Case

Send email to Commission to urge that all meetings be held in public, not in secret.

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Seven months after the Texas Forensic Science Commission delayed its investigation into the evidence used to help convict Cameron Todd Willingham, the commission on Friday revived the politically-charged case, albeit briefly.

Last August, an expert hired by the commission concluded the house fire that killed Willingham's three children might not have been arson, but the Corsicana Fire Department vehemently disagreed.

Just before commissioners began the probe into the case in 2009 and as Gov. Rick Perry faced what appeared to be a tough primary re-election, he replaced its chairman with Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, who promptly put the discussions on hold, until now.

At issue is whether faulty forensics convicted the Corsicana man. However, for five hours Friday, the commission discussed policy and procedure. Commissioners spent about ten minutes on Willingham, the center of the most publicized investigation in the Forensic Science Commission's four year history.

Commissioners did decide to proceed on the Willingham investigation, but set no deadlines, timetables or milestones as to when.

Despite pushes of transparency from fellow commissioners, Perry's recently installed chairman, Bradley, established committees.

He's on the small panel investigating the Willingham case and declared it will meet in private rather than have discussions in the open before the entire committee like the commission had done previously.

"I don't think that is in the best interest of us trying to move forward on this because the ability to discuss and resolve these issues requires us to have those discussions in private," Bradley said. "All of our issues will be released publicly in full commission meetings."

Commissioners won't decide innocence or guilt in the Willingham case, only whether sloppy science helped lead to his conviction.

Precedence is also at stake, along with public confidence in both forensic science and the commission itself.

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• Todd WIllingham
• death penalty

[Armageddon1986]

@TheGuyNamedCris agreed

[TheGuyNamedCris]

Shame on our government!