A little over two years ago, a high school dropout named
Cameron Todd Willingham (Prisoner #999041) was executed by the State of Texas for the horrific crime of killing his three little girls--one two year-old and two one year-old twins--by setting their home on fire and letting them die in the blaze.
It was the only time on record when an execution was carried out for someone convicted of using fire as a murder weapon.
Cameron Todd Willingham, by any measure of the evidence presented at trial, was innocent of the crime for which he was executed.
The
Offender Information sheet the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has posted online describes the case as follows:
Convicted in the deaths of his three young children in a house fire. Killed in the house fire at 1213 West 11th St. in Corsicana were Amber Louis Kuykendall, 2, and twins Karmon Diane Willingham, 1, and Kameron Marie Willingham, 1. The defendant told authorities that the fire started while he and the children were asleep. An investigation, however, revealed that it was intentionally set with a flammable liquid. He was arrested and charged in the deaths on January 8, 1992.
In his investigation of the fire scene, the Fire Marshal noted what he considered twenty indicators of arson, which were subsequently cited at trial. A review of that report conducted by a panel of experts about 13 years later (one of whom is, I'm very proud to say, my father, John Lentini) revealed that in all twenty instances, the Fire Marshal had erred in declaring he had found signs of arson.
You see, in between the Willingham fire and the Willingham execution, dozens of myths in fire investigation had been disproved. Some of these myths were disproved by the Oakland wildfires in the early 1990s, when fire investigators got a chance to look at numerous homes that were known to have been burned by accidental fires and saw many of the same "indicators of arson" they had been taught to regard as Gospel. Many of those myths were in fact the basis of the report that sent Cameron Todd Willingham to his death.
Much of the review of the original "evidence" that condemned Willingham follows. Though not too technical, the review argues the "evidence" can be largely summed up with the phrases "baseless speculation" and "Old Wives' Tales" (if you're interested in a brief summary of some of the key myths that have been debunked, my father gave an interview to Scott Simon of NPR last year that can be heard here):
The fire investigation report of the Texas State Fire Marshal's Office in this case is a remarkable document. On first reading, a contemporary fire origin and cause analyst might well wonder how anyone could make so many critical errors in interpreting the evidence. However, when the report is looked at in the context of its time and in light of a few key advances that have been made in the fire investigation field in the last dozen years, it becomes obvious that the report more or less simply reflects the shortcomings in the state of the art prior to the beginning of serious efforts to introduce standards and to test old theories that had previously been accepted on faith.
Within a few weeks of the issuance of the Fire Marshal's report, the first edition of NFPA 921, "a Guide to Fire and Explosion Investigation" was published by the National Fire Protection Association. This landmark publication was developed by a committee of over 30 well-respected fire experts elected by NFPA members. It was assembled through a process which met all the requirements of an ASTM standard. Since then, NFPA 921 has become the de facto standard of care for the fire investigation community and will appear in its 5th edition in early 2004. As will be shown later, most of the conclusions reached by the Fire Marshall would be considered invalid in light of current knowledge.
...
In his report, the investigator for the Texas State Fire Marshal's Office announced that he had found more than 20 indicators of incendiarism. The indicators he cited as such were crazed glass, multiple origins, brown rings on a cement porch, low burns on walls in the Bedroom/hall area, V-patterns on walls, charring to the base of a screen door, a positive analysis for kerosene ("mineral spirits of kerosene"), burned wood under an aluminum threshold, tiles burned from underneath, and an unnumbered occurrence of so-called "trailers," "pour patterns," and "puddle-configurations."
Trailers, pour patterns and puddle configurations: A decade ago, fire investigators would often look at a post-flashover fire scene and note various burn patterns of varying degree which appeared to be shaped like irregular pours of liquid. It was fairly common practice for the investigator to cite these patterns as proof of the use of an accelerant. With the advent of NFPA 921, it became more and more widely realized that post-flashover burning in a room or hallway produces floor burn patterns which cannot be differentiated from burns imagined to be caused by liquid accelerants. Full scale testing, as reported in reference 6 above, showed that post-flashover burning, even of relatively short duration, makes it impossible to identify accelerant burns visually. Thus it becomes impossible to visually identify accelerant patterns under these conditions.
The subject fire included post-flashover burning of considerable duration as evidence by the hallmark of flashover, flames pouring from windows and doors.
Multiple Origins: The Fire Marshall reported multiple fire origins. Actual multiple fire origins create a powerful case for arson. However, multiple origins can only be demonstrated when two or more areas of fire are completely isolated from one another. In this post-flashover fire, all of the burn areas were clearly contiguous in the sense that they were at least joined by obvious radiation and/or conduction mechanisms. The finding of multiple origins was inappropriate even in the context of the state of the art in 1991.
V-Patterns: Contrary to the Fire Marshal's report, V-patterns are only sometimes indicators of the point of origin of a fire and only rarely indicators of the use of a liquid accelerant. If a fire is snuffed out before flashover, a V-pattern, such as one above a coffee maker may suggest that the object below the V started the fire. However, once a fire passes the flashover stage, original patterns often become overwhelmed and new V-patterns will form from the burning of such common items as wooden door frames, combustible objects on the floor, etc. The effect of post-flashover burning on the appearance and disappearance of V-patterns parallels the effects on floor patterns.
Burned wood under aluminum threshold: The fire Marshal alleged that the charring of wood under the aluminum threshold was caused by a liquid accelerant burning under the threshold. This phenomenon is clearly impossible. Liquid accelerants can no more burn under an aluminum threshold than can grease burn in a skillet even with a loose-fitting lid. The charring of wood under a threshold is a common occurrence in post-flashover fires. The thermal radiation at doorways is extremely high because of the turbulent mixing of hot, fuel-rich gases with incoming fresh air. This radiation if often high enough to actually melt the threshold (660 degrees C).
Ten years ago melted thresholds or charred underlying wood were routinely classified as accelerant-induced phenomena. Today, it is textbook knowledge that the effects are caused by radiation. See "Kirk's Fire Investigation," Fifth Edition, Copyright 2002.
Tiles burned from accelerant underneath: A liquid accelerant will not burn underneath a tile on the floor any more than it will under an aluminum threshold. Burning underneath a tile is caused by the tile curling under post-flashover radiation and thereby exposing its lower surface to the heat. Kerosene-like materials will burn only with great difficulty even on the top surface of tile material. They tend to self-extinguish leaving unburned kerosene behind and have little effect on the tile. See reference 5 above, Flammable and Combustible Liquid Spill/Burn Patterns, NIJ Report 604-00, 1997
Crazed Glass: The idea that crazed glass is an indicator of the use of a liquid accelerant is now classified by the fire investigation as an "Old Wives Tale." Crazed glass is caused by the rapid chilling of hot glass by water used to extinguish the fire. This information was first published following the investigation of a fire storm in Oakland which destroyed many homes and later confirmed by laboratory tests. See reference 2 above, "Unconventional Wisdom: The Lessons of Oakland," 1993.
Brown rings on the cement porch: The identification of the presence of an accelerant based on brown rings on a cement floor is baseless speculation. A great deal of brown rust and soluble iron salts is created at fire scenes. When the puddles of fire hose water evaporate they often leave brown material trapped in the surface pores of the cement. The presence of al accelerant can only be established by chromatographic analysis in the laboratory.
The Positive Accelerant Analysis: The fire Marshal reported that kerosene was found in a single sample of wood taken from the bottom of the doorway adjacent to the cement porch. What the analyst actually reported was "mineral spirits of kerosene," which is not the same thing as kerosene. A burned can of charcoal lighter was also found on the same concrete floor. Charcoal lighter fluid belongs to the class of liquids labeled "mineral spirits of kerosene." Therefore, the presence of this material is an expected natural occurrence in the wake of a fire. Fluid from the can would be dispersed and floated across the concrete by the action of the immiscible water from the fire hoses.
In short, the state of fire investigations at the time of Willingham's execution was such as to render meaningless all the purported evidence used against him at trial. In no way, given current fire debris analysis, could Cameron Todd Willingham have been proven guilty.
Presented with this report eviscerating the case against Willingham, Gov. Rick Perry refused to grant a stay of execution, and Cameron Todd Willingham was killed by the state of Texas February 17, 2004, saying before his death
Yeah. The only statement I want to make is that I am an innocent man - convicted of a crime I did not commit. I have been persecuted for 12 years for something I did not do. From God's dust I came and to dust I will return - so the earth shall become my throne.
In addition to the tragic conviction and execution of Cameron Todd Willingham, I would also like to note two of the other cases that have happened over the past few decades where a miscarriage of justice had to be overturned or was barely prevented:
*Weldon Wayne Carr, convicted by then-prosecutor Nancy Grace in 1993 for killing his wife. The state argued that he had incapacitated his wife, then laid a trail of accelerant-soaked newspaper along the stairs and set the house on fire to cover his crime, and in the process of fleeing the scene broken his spine by jumping from his upstairs window. The paper they found was actually burned wallpaper, and hadn't been treated with any flammable substance. A trained dog detected an accelerant, but no forensic analysis found any to be present.
Carr had been eligible for the death penalty, and was sentenced to life in prison. He was freed in 2004.
*Beverly Jean Long, who was tried but acquitted on charges that she killed and burned her husband. Her husband had died accidentally when he filled a kerosene heater called a smudge pot with gasoline and caused an explosion. The evidence presented against her at trial was completely unfounded by any forensic standard: the state's investigative witness was not trained in fire investigation, mispronounced common terminology, and had no grasp of basic concepts (in other words, he was completely incompetent, yet his testimony could have sentenced Mrs. Long to death--he later argued in his own defense, "I never contended to be an expert on arson").
These are only two cases, but they represent decades of cases where unscientific "evidence" and faulty theories were used to obtain convictions. Until the Oakland wildfires, there hadn't been any detailed studies of fires known to be accidental. What was learned following those wildfires turned decades of fire investigation on its head.
It is too late to give Cameron Todd Willingham the justice our system claims to offer. The only way to provide justice for him is to ensure that others never face the situation that claimed his life. Thankfully, the Innocence Project is now reviewing arson convictions, looking for exactly the sort of errors in methodology and analysis that convicted Willingham. Yesterday the group presented the Texas Forensic Science Commission with a request to examine on a statewide level all arson cases, citing the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham in their request.
Cameron Todd Willingham was about as flawed a person as you can imagine. But he was no less deserving of justice than any of us. I can only hope he was right about there being a reward for those that suffer unjustly.
My dad taught me that when fire investigators sit around a blaze, they have an expression they all use. They gaze at the fire and say, "it's a beautiful thing." Fire has forever been the primary source of illumination for civilizations the world over.
An innocent man and his three beautiful daughters are dead, but from their deaths may come a new reckoning, and a new awakening. The illumination from the Willingham fire may cast a much needed light on the darkest corners of our society, and may some day help show us the way back to the promise of "justice for all."
It's a beautiful thing.