I simply can not believe this is not a bigger story:
Orwell once wrote, “[He] who controls the past, controls the future.” Texas Governor Rick Perry has apparently taken the lesson to heart. He’s now removed a fourth member of the Texas commission responsible for investigating whether Texas (and Perry) executed an innocent man. It’s whitewashing at its worst.
As it is, this story already reads like a Grisham novel- allegations of murder and arson, the execution of an innocent man, corrupt politicos What exactly does the media need before they cover this?
Seriously, there is a Pulitzer in this story.
Scott
Rick Perry is widely despised in Texas.
But the Texas media is pretty much bought and paid for.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
A missing white girl, preferably on a tropical island.
What was done to the man was a crime, he was murdered by the state of Texas. He was killed because he was told that he killed his family and he went to his death with that lie for cold comfort.
I hope Perry and all involved rot in hell for eternity. That or are reincarnated as dung beetles.
Comrade javafascist
Dung Beetles are more noble and useful than Rick Perry.
SomeCallMeTim
To be fair, a lot of reporters are out, dressed like hookers, on the ACORN story.
Ash
As much as people malign the dead trees press and whatnot, The New Yorker story is pretty much the only reason so many people outside of Texas even know this story exists. Everyone else has completely dropped the ball, and they don’t give a fuck either.
MattF
Neither a live boy nor a dead goat. Even if the goat was framed.
dmsilev
Credit where credit is due: The Chicago Tribune has been all over this story, from the original investigation into the clusterfuck which passes for Texas justice, proceeding right up to Perry’s clumsy attempts to cover up.
Edit: The Trib has been covering this since 2004, and the most recent story was this weekend, about the political coverup.
-dms
4tehlulz
>What exactly does the media need before they cover this?
A case outside Texas. I wouldn’t be surprised if the prevailing attitude was more or less “Well, it’s Texas”.
scav
and it’s ticking away at TPM so there’s some hope.
ChrisS
But, dude, ACORN!
I also heard that some people in Obama’s administration don’t think highly of republicans. Can you believe that nerve of them? It’s not supposed to be political.
Ugh
the execution of an innocent man
Not only that, but for supposedly killing his own children no less. God, sitting in jail for 14 years and then being executed for being falsely convicted of killing your own kids. The horror.
martha
@dmsilev: Those FIBs (she says lovingly) learned about this issue the hard way, so they’re more attuned to it. Good for them.
Balconesfault
Texas papers have been covering this … but probably out of fear of losing real estate advertising (Perry supporter Bob Perry – not related – swings a MAJOR cat in all Texas real estate circles, not to mention dropping about a million a year in political contributions) they haven’t been topfolding it or banging the drum on a daily basis.
donovong
I.O.I.Y.K.P.I.Y.A.R.
It Is Okay If You Kill People If You Are Republican.
It doesn’t hurt if you are a Texas Governor, current (Perry) or former (Bush). The fact that hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of innocent people died in Iraq is ignored just as badly as the innocent people who are executed in this country every year.
jibeaux
If you read the New Yorker article on this, it ends with something along the lines of “Texas could be the first state to officially declare that an innocent man was executed” (paraphrased).
My first thought was that Sarah Palin is going to become Queen of England before that happens. So, lo and behold. Someone check and see who Prince William’s been dating…
cmorenc
What I don’t get is: what possible advantage is in it for Perry to cover this up, instead of getting behind re-examining such an immensely likely miscarriage of justice? It’s not as if by getting on-board, he’s risking the eventual release of some rotten apple of a human being who just fortuitously happens not to be guilty of this crime, unlike many others they probably got away with? The guy’s dead, deceased, executed, this is a POSTHUMOUS investigation.
What is it about Texas Republicans that they have such a strong instinct to not only get aboard the wrong side of every issue, but to especially far out of their way to be complete amoral assholes about it?
cmorenc
What I don’t get is: what possible advantage is in it for Perry to cover this up, instead of getting behind re-examining such an immensely likely miscarriage of justice? It’s not as if by getting on-board, he’s risking the eventual release of some rotten apple of a human being who just fortuitously happens not to be guilty of this crime, unlike many others they probably got away with? The guy’s dead, deceased, executed, this is a POSTHUMOUS investigation.
What is it about Texas Republicans that they have such a strong instinct to not only get aboard the wrong side of every issue, but to especially far out of their way to be complete amoral assholes about it?
RWB
For what it’s worth, this was front page news in The Houston Chronicle and has been written about quite a bit in that paper–not normally known for its journalistic perspicacity or courage.
Thee have been so many exonerations in Texas that the issue of our heavily flawed justice system is starting to sink in. I think it will be an issue in the governor’s race, one that will hopefully help remove Perry from office, but more importantly, see substantive reforms in the criminal justice system in Texas.
anonevent
I was just happy yesterday that the story managed to get the top left corner of the Dallas Morning News where they tell you to look inside. It’s slowly creeping up to a real story around here.
jibeaux
@cmorenc:
Because they don’t care about justice, they care about keeping the death penalty. The officially sanctioned execution of a demonstrably not guilty person would be disastrous for the political and legal future of the death penalty. It’s the whole plot of a Kevin Spacey movie whose title I have forgotten…
EdTheRed
I’m gonna dress up as a pimp, strap on a hidden camera, and see if I can get some answers from Perry’s staffers. Also.
geg6
It’s murder. Pure and simple.
This story is so sad and so why I would never live in TX.
aimai
I think talk of a Pulitzer is like saying “there’s money on the ground” several miles off. Do journalists and their newspapers really look for a reward that is maybe years or even months off? Its ratings, ratings, ratings, now. Same mentality as a business that doesn’t look at anything that is more than a quarter away. Its going to be the New Yorker or a freelancer that has the time and the focus to burrow away on this story. Maybe the Chicago Trib. But it will be cold comfort because Perry and the state of Texas already killed that man.
aimai
Morbo
Someone call Stewart or Colbert; they can humorously torch Perry and maybe light a fire under some people’s asses. And someone needs to summon the ghost of Molly Ivins.
beltane
Don’t we impose trade sanctions on other countries for this type of thing? I guess Texas and China are in their own league on this.
Jay Schiavone
Look how long it took the Times to observe that the West Memphis 3 might not be guilty. The status quo is sacred.
dmsilev
@cmorenc: Well, Perry was part of the original miscarriage of justice; by the time of the execution, there was already quite a bit of evidence that the prosecution’s case (a combination of a forensic case for arson and a jailhouse snitch testifying about a confession) was complete garbage. Governor Perry essentially rubber-stamped the execution order, without taking the time to even look to see if a mistake had been made.
In other words, if the investigation shows that Willingham was unjustly executed, some of the blood is on Perry’s hands. He’s trying to suppress the investigation out of self-preservation.
-dms
GambitRF
Did Rick Perry say a swear at any point during this? I’m sure Politico will be all over the story in that case.
Ash
@cmorenc:
Well he refuses to release any details about what information he reviewed before he signed the death warrant. My guess is he skimmed that shit for 5 minutes and he doesn’t want that getting out.
Of course, in Texas they probably won’t care. If you read the comments (which is of course always a bad idea) in the articles from the Dallas or Houston papers, it makes you yearn for nuclear winter.
Lee
It is actually worse than that
Some from the article:
He also uses only a ‘personal’ email account so he thinks he does not need to keep any records.
His staff deletes all their emails and schedules after 7 days and no backups are made.
jwb
@Scott: I don’t even think that’s right: I haven’t noticed that the media particularly loves Gov. Goodhair; it’s more that the state is still so totally in the grips of the GOP that whoever wins the Republican primary would have to not execute someone in order not to get elected. And that in a nutshell is why Goodhair let this man die.
My sense is that Goodhair is playing games with the commission not because there is really any smoking gun that points back to the Governor himself but rather because he’s afraid that it will result in a momentary moratorium on executions—and you can’t let that happen that when you are expecting a closely contested primary.
gopher2b
Without checking, I”m assuming the convicted and executed was a black man. Correct?
The Raven
Croak!
Lee
@gopher2b
Surprisingly a white guy.
Napoleon
@Lee:
They were basically doing the same thing at the Bush White House.
Zifnab
@Ash:
It’s not even that. The GOP has been campaigning in defense of capital punishment for generations. Just last year, Louisiana was pushing to execute child sex offenders. This is a major wedge issue for the Republican Party, particularly in the south. It allows them to up the ante when playing the Tough On Crime card.
Perry can’t let that kind of leverage go.
Admitting this kind of fuck up puts the death penalty on the fast track to go before the SCOTUS and be declared unconstitutional.
gopher2b
@Lee:
Egg on my face.
Califlander
What exactly does the media need before they cover this?
A Democrat they can blame it on.
Joshua
Rick Perry acting so brazenly to cover up his government’s fuckup gives me flashbacks to 2007. I don’t like it.
Of course, Scalia has already gone on the record and said that as long as the executed person got a “fair trial”, his innocence is inconsequential. Whether or not the rest of the wingnut bloc of the Court would agree with that, I have no idea.
OriGuy
@gopher2b: Not in this case. Cameron Todd Willingham was white.
Stefan
What exactly does the media need before they cover this?
If we could get Perry to murder a blonde young sorority girl I think we’d have a story. Until then, not so much.
Keith G
Here in Houston it is being covered by the Chronicle, just not on the front page. This is a good run down.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6662113.html
Ash Can
@cmorenc:
Dmsilev @ #26 beat me to it. I have to wonder if Perry’s negligence in the matter sets him up for some kind of manslaughter rap.
JackieBinAZ
@Lee: but not surprisingly, from a low socio-economic bracket.
ricky
No Pulitzer will bring Willingham back to life.
jrg
Quoted for truth.
That’s best case. More likely, next week’s Politico headline will read “44% of State Who Executed Innocent Man Voted for Barack Hussein Obama”
EconWatcher
Give it time. I believe the stories about this case are going to build and build. I think this may be the turning point for the end of the death penalty in the United States. (Knocking on wood.) The SCOTUS won’t do it, but the people might.
There is a small, hard core of DP supporters in this country who won’t care if the occasional innocent is executed. But the squishy middle who make up most of the support for the DP in opinion polls most certainly does care. This will not stand.
Keith G
Speaking of the Houston Chron, this online headline caught my eye:
Houston strip club patron’s night: dance, ejection, shootinge
Hmmm
This is my weapon, this is my gun…..
asiangrrlMN
@EdTheRed: I’ll be the ho.
I second the missing white girl on an island or if the executed innocent man was a member of W.’s family. But that would never happen, would it? Money has privileges, after all.
This story is just…incredibly sad. The worst part is that it’s not the only story, I am sure. I hope Governor Goodhair gets severely trounced during the next elections, but I am not holding my breath.
DougJ
Generally, with any story, ask yourself the following questions:
1) Did it involve celebrities?
2) Did it involve sex?
3) Is Glenn Beck interested in it?
4) Was anyone involved dressed up as a pimp or ho?
If the answer to all three is “no”, it’s not a big story.
It’s that simple.
DougJ
I left out
Does it involve missing white women?
slag
I’ve been asking this very question. The only responses I’ve got are: a conscience, even the vaguest interest in policy, or a pimp and a ho on video.
slag
@DougJ: Damn you, DougJ!
Lee
There is a better than average chance that he ends up not being the Republican nominee. Sen Kay B Hutchinson is running in the primary against him.
It is a battle for the Republicans that everyone has talked about. The wingnut fringe against the rest (Perry represents the wingnuts). It will certainly be an interesting primary battle once it really gets underway.
kay
Democrats in the state legislature should make it a broader transparency issue. Perry seems to be a tad vulnerable there, and I think a governor citing national security as a reason for secrecy is always suspect.
Voters love, love, love state sunshine laws. Use him as an example of “government operating in the dark”.
Jay C
@Ash:
Actually, Governor Perry (or someone in his office) spent – amazingly – almost ten minutes reviewing (maybe) Willingham’s last stay request.
Publius at Obsidian Wings is all over this: the title of his post says it all: Your Life is Not Worth Ten Minutes of Perry’s Time
Martin
Pay attention, people. CNN has covered this on Wolf’s and Cooper’s segments and CNN.com carried the story on their front page a week ago or so.
http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/10/02/shake-up-in-texas-execution-probe-draws-criticism-questions/
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/01/texas.execution.probe/index.html
I can’t speak for other outlets, but CNN was on it the day after the 3 panel members were replaced.
John Cole
@Martin: CNN has been my source every time I have mentioned this, including in this post.
EconWatcher
Administration of the death penalty in Texas is not just inept and unjust. It is corrupt. This case is the perfect illustration. The truth will out. As I said before, give it time. This case is the one.
By the way, Texas is also number one for prison rape. As our criminal jsutice system receives some much-needed sunlight because of the Willingham case, let’s make sure that’s part of discussion too.
ChrisS
@jibeaux:
It’s the whole plot of a Kevin Spacey movie whose title I have forgotten…
The Life of David Gale. The worst movie I have ever purchased tickets for (and that includes Mark Harmon’s “Summer School” and M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Village”). Absolutely horrid, logically flawed, and over-acted. I wanted to leave within 5 minutes after I figured out what was going to happen. I don’t even think that the credits had finished rolling yet.
Violet
The news is getting out. I had dinner with some family members last week who are very solid Republicans. They knew about it. They live in Texas. People are aware of it, whether they want to know about it or not.
feebog
We need to get Rachel Maddow or KO to do a segment on this. Interview the arson analyst who was scheduled to testify in front of the commission and blow this wide open.
Joshua
Heh. I actually saw the movie at a screening in college and Kevin Spacey himself came out and gave a quick chat for a few minutes. The movie was horrible, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t get me to think about my position on the death penalty for the first time in my life.
Demo Woman
The comments on the Houston Chron. are interesting. Did you know that Rick Perry was a democratic until the 1980’s. What it did not mention was so was Phil Graham but oh well.
Willingham was a bad person so it’s okay plus he confessed to the murder. Of course the confession was given to a prisoner who got a deal. He also was a wife beater but there is no evidence of that.
Somewhere Kay Bailey Hutchinson is smiling.
Egilsson
Wha…?!! The Village is a great movie. The music alone is worth it.
Now, the Happening was dreadful.
gopher2b
I just finished the New Yorker article and I am appalled.
I was less than 2-3 pages into the 17 page article and I said to myself: I guarantee there was a space heater in the kids’ room. Sure enough, a couple pages later, it’s mentioned.
(I have worked on enough products liability cases involving these things to know what a fire caused by them looks like).
The fire “investigator” said he checked it during the investigation and said it was “off” but the mother said she was sure she turned it on. I GUARANTEE you he didn’t check it and just said it was off when asked.
Regardless, this is a travesty. The guy is was almost certainly factually innocent and was without a doubt legally not guilty.
Erik Vanderhoff
@Egilsson
Are you on dope? The Village was horrid. And I say that as someone who finds Signs acceptable.
Comrade Sock Puppet of the Great Satan
What’s also shocking was the crappiness of arson forensics. Basically the prosecution’s arson investigator was using a bunch of folk wisdom with no scientific basis. I wouldn’t be surprised if dozens of arson convictions also get thrown out based on what’s been exposed as the woefulness of arson forsenics in this case.
LD50
Sad to say, it actually helps that Willingham was white. If he was black, there’d be far more GOP support for sweeping it under the rug.
bayville
Blwjob!
Seanly
Just goes to show that Texas sucks.
OT:
Liz Cheney now has a new group to combat the “radical foreign policy” of Obama.
Yummy. Daughter of heartless SOB Cheney combined with the always wrong Kristol – combination to be wary of…
Brachiator
@John Cole:
Much about this case reminds me of Adam Gopnik’s essay on the Dreyfus affair in the September 28 New Yorker, one of the finest pieces of writing that I have read in a long time.
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2009/09/28/090928crbo_books_gopnik
After a time, it was clear that Dreyfus was innocent of the charges against him.
Governor Perry seems to be defending the honor of the system in Texas which condemns people to death.
And how did the French respond when someone tried to expose the cover-up?
Towards the end, Gopnik makes the following, magnificent point:
What more need be said?
Xanthippas
Well, this story is being covered even by my local news affiliate WFAA in Dallas. Texas papers are on it, and so are Texas bloggers. I don’t know what the rest of the country’s excuse is. To be fair, there’s an awful lot going on right now; most of the progressives out there seem to be focused primarily on health care right now. But the story has legs, and I think momentum on it is building, especially as Perry shoots himself in the foot removing forensics commission members and stories get out that his attorneys sought to influence the commission to lay off the Willingham case.
Molly
@Demo Woman:
Civil suit, Willingham’s family needs to sue the State of Texas for wrongful death. Lawyers here, is that possible?
Perry cares because his ass is on the line. He barely reviewed the final brief. He’s paid no attention to this case. Basically, he fucked up, and I think he knows it…not the fuck up of “I killed an innocent man,” but “Oh hell, people are talking about this, and it could have bad consequences for me politically.” The man wants to run for President. Do not underestimate his ambition or his ego or his lack of grasp of reality.
Husband and I are solid Texas progressives, and we’re going to vote in the Republican primaries for Kay Bailey. Desperate times and all. All of our cohorts are doing the same. He will lose the election. Democrats are going to vote in the Republican primary, because we can, and we will vote for Hutchinson. Because a Democrat won’t win here…yet.
Call it our own Operation Chaos.
gopher2b
The only thing that bothers me is the fact he admitted in his final letter to his parents that he didn’t actually try to save his twins. He said he was afraid that if anyone knew the truth, they would think he was a coward.
First, I totally get that. It’s not at all surprising. But, when someone changes their story – even a little bit – you have to wonder if something else is going on deeper.
They “investigators,” however, did not find any accelerant in the kids’ room or the hallway. This so damning. I would be interested to see the trial transcripts to see how this was used by the defense.
Mark Gisleson
I just checked and Rickperryrapedandmurderedamanin2004.com is still available.
Midnight Marauder
@Erik Vanderhoff:
This and a half.
ChrisS
@Joshua:
The movie was horrible, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t get me to think about my position on the death penalty for the first time in my life.
That movie didn’t do anything for me because of the flawed logic (we’ll fool the state into murdering an innocent). However, a libertarian gf said once that she could never support state-sanctioned murder. And that statement, more than anything else, turned me against the death penalty permanently.
LD50
It’d probably have to be his parents, if he has any. His kids are, uh, dead and he died very, shall we say, estranged from his wife.
The Raven
It’s getting coverage. Not as much as Polanski, but coverage in the NYT and on CNN. I expect there’s a Pulitzer for David Grann, who wrote the New Yorker article. What am I missing?
Hominds. You hear what you expect to hear.
gopher2b
@Molly:
A lot of procedural hurdles would stand in their way including: (1) state immunity, (2) standing, (3) statute of limitations, etc. They may have a solid 1982 claim (denying Constitutional rights) but I’m unsure if these can be brought posthumously (though I imagine they would be).
If I were a Texas lawyer, I would be volunteering to bring it pro bono. It may lose on a Motion to Dismiss but the suit would have merit.
celticdragon
@Ash:
I had the same reaction. Some of the “law and order” types honest to God sound like brownshirts. (Lotsa fun to be had with them over at Patterico’s blog.)
I can assure you the officer is not all that concerned with trying not to offend you. He is instead concerned with protecting his mortal hide from having holes placed in it where God did not intend. And you, if in asserting your constitutional right to be free from unlawful search and seizure fail to do as the officer asks, run the risk of having such holes placed in your own.
http://reason.com/blog/2009/07/29/response-to-lapd-officer-jack/print
Not trying to win a Godwin here, but these killer cop apologists and enablers, along with the kill’emalltheygotitcoming crowd at the Texas newpapers honestly make me question how tenable our hold on liberal democracy really is. There is a strain of authoritarian hate that runs really deep on the reactionary edge of the right…but it isn’t really the edge anymore.
mark
a Democratic blow job??
SiubhanDuinne
I cannot TELL you how much I am missing Molly Ivins right now.
Tony J
@celticdragon:
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t that paragraph posted here a while ago by someone arguing that old, black law-professors should not give lip to white law-enforcers and expect to get away unscathed?
I swear, it’s word for word what I remember reading, and it sure as hell wasn’t recently or on Reason.
Leelee for Obama
The Willingham story is about as heartbreaking as such stories can be. I remember reading about this case a while back and thinking there was no way he was guilty. Also knew there was little chance Gov. Good Hair would commute the sentence. Perry is a complete sociopath, like his predecessor, so executin’ the bad guys is what’s for dinner.
I will disagree about the Life of Daniel Gale. I always had a profound aversion to the death penalty, until the LIRR shooting. Several friends and I were traveling back and forth to NYC on the train at that time, and it tended to focus the mind differently. I wasn’t pro- but my anti- predeliction was challenged. It was the Daniel Gale hypothesis, before the movie came out that made me reclaim my original position. While I was pretty certain the guy on trial was the guy-what if he wasn’t? Life w/o parole is the most any state should impose.
I really don’t want the US of A on a list with China and Iran and others that execute their prisoners. Moral high-ground comes with a price, one I think we should pay.
DougJ
Sad to say, it actually helps that Willingham was white.
I’m not sure it helps that much. He’s seen as white trash which is much the same as being seen as black. See Clinton, William Jefferson.
Midnight Marauder
@DougJ:
It especially didn’t help him in the “Not Being Executed Even Though You’re Innocent” Department.
LD50
@DougJ: Perhaps. But I think if he’d been black, I think we’d be hearing
“HE MIGHT AS WELL BE GUILTY” rhetoric.
binzinerator
@Brachiator:
I’m inclined to think he’s defending more than just one gooper holier-than-holies. It’s a domino theory operating here, keep one from falling to keep the whole fucked up cut-off-nose-to-spite-face gooper belief system from crumbling.
Which relates to what cmorenc asked:
Republicans have adopted a whole set of so-called cultural values that they’ve marketed as Real America. It’s a set of beliefs they’ve elevated almost into a religion, the espousal of which proves one is Not A Lib (libs very bad) and identifies one as Conservative, a.k.a Real Murkin (USA! USA!).
I’m referring to the whole set of so-called cultural values goopers have made into their religion. You know these totems: Death penalty, abortion, environment, guns, god and gays. And of course tax cuts for the wealthy.
They’re terrified of people seeing in a very powerful way that even one of these things is bullshit, that it doesn’t produce the kind of society they insist it will, it would become obvious to most people 1) the DFH’s were right all along, and 2) the conservative’s world view and/or their cherished means of how to obtain it was mostly bullshit.
They can’t allow that, ever. So they double down on them.
Perry’s not defending the honor of the system in Texas; he’s defending the honor of whole gooper belief system.
To respond in light of what I’ve said: That strong instinct is self-preservation. The death penalty is one of the sacrements in the conservative religion, and the goopers are its high priests.
celticdragon
@Tony J:
Probably.
Some asshat officer who posts under a psuodonym at The Corner wrote that in response to the Gates incident.
Balko at Reason was not amused.
LD50
@LD50: Wow. Blockquoting total fail. :-o
brantl
There’s one county in particular, in Texas that is having loads of its convictions overturned on DNA evidence by the Innocence Project, is this, by any chance, from that county?
Anne Laurie
The fact that little white girls died in that trailer fire is significant to the eventual state-sanctioned murder of their father. There’s a fetid mutant strain of the Old-Testament-fed American Exceptionalism virus which insists that no bad thing happens to a member of the “Virtuous Class” except through deliberate evil. Little African-American or Mexican kids die in a trailer fire, it’s just another tragedy; little white kids die in an identical fire, it’s a crime for which somebody must be punished. And since the state of Texas, defender of OTF American Exceptionalism, is not going to punish the space-heater manufacturer or the company that constructed the trailer (targets that would have been suggested, fairly or not, in a more “progressive” American state)… C.T. Willingham was put to death for the
sincrime of being a bad daddy.As the most fervent defenders of the death penalty will tell you, if “we” don’t punish someone when an adorable “innocent” dies, how can we live with the suspicion that “our” god doesn’t rank every single human life on exactly the same scale that we do?
tofubo
What exactly does the media need before they cover this?
they are focus group testing what democratic angle will generate the most buzz, they’re on hypothesis 5,734 because all the others have failed to work because there is no democratic angle to the story, so until then, it’s things like david letterman and michael moore, not that senator guy or the actual true stories in the movie
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
Penises for $500, Alex.
terry chay
I’m pretty certain that that New Yorker article will win a Pulitzer.