Saturday, July 02, 2011

[1683] DEAD MEN WALKING?

I read a case this past week, it was the story of Randal Addams. He sat on Texas death row for 12 years. He was convicted of the murder of a Dallas cop based on the testimony of another man. Later on it was found that the person who testified against him was the true killer.

This case was documented in the movie ‘Thin Blue Line’. The original intent of the film maker was to expose how Texas was using the faulty findings of a psychiatrist to say that certain offenders would ‘kill again’ if released. So in Randall’s case- not only was he wrongly convicted- but the system swore ‘he will kill again’ though he never killed in the 1st place.

Randal was 3 days away from being executed in Huntsville and former governor Clemmons stayed the execution- not because he thought he was innocent- but on other findings that showed that the prosecutor lied about evidence.

Eventually they would find him not guilty of the crime- but heck- he was a real pain about the thing. I mean don’t you know that these prosecutors have lives to live! Going to the ball games with their kids- enjoying a night with the wife. Damn- why don’t these criminals just shut up and take it like a man.

After Randall was released- he did not qualify for the compensation that we now give to wrongly convicted persons. As a matter of fact- Texas didn’t even give him the 200 dollars that you’re supposed to get upon release- yeah they showed him.

Randall died last year in Ohio- he had a job for a while in Texas and when his employer found out about his record he was fired. Texas lied to convict him- they lied about him being a ‘future murderer’ if released. And they wanted him to die- just go away!

Right now my governor is making news about being a potential candidate for the presidency. He is embroiled somewhat in his own death penalty case. Cameron Todd Willingham was executed a few years ago- convicted of setting his house on fire and killing his kids.

Todd maintained his innocence thru out the years. What has come under scrutiny is the fire ‘science’ used to determine he set the fire. Here in Texas we have a state fire marshal’s office- as a retired fire fighter I recall using them many times over the years.

I worked at a small city dept. - 30,000 people- we had around 30 guys on the dept. Many times we would call the state fire marshal to come down [their guys] and make a determination for a case. Often times these were cases that included lots of loss- cases that insurance companies might contest.

So to play it safe we called down the big boys. Now- I maintained a Fire Inspectors license for 25 years with the dept. To be honest- it was kind of a fluke. When I got hired the city was holding a course for fire inspectors- and one of the requirements for new recruits was you must attend any schools the city is sponsoring for your first year.

So I attended and became a ‘fire investigator’. Sure- I learned a few things- and of course as a fire fighter you gain experience as the years go by. But I was a little shocked to realize that the state actually used the arson findings that the state fire marshals office determined in order to put Willingham to death.

Though the state does their best to make these determinations- yet the science is not an exact science. You do use a lot of ‘guess work’ in these findings. Over the past few years I have seen/read about the controversy. At times I wonder whether or not the governors accusations are true- he has accused the anti death penalty people of trying to use this case as a cause célèbre for their side.

Supposedly the top arson guy- from the North East- who has sided with the anti death penalty people- supposedly he is a little ‘gung ho’ about the ‘new science’ and the governor deemed him a little off the beaten path.

I did listen to this fire expert one day- and I did kind of get that feeling too. He was talking about the case- and how at the time the fire science was not as advanced as it is today [I can believe that]. But he went on to explain [maybe a lawyer was talking at this point?] that the ‘so called’ evidence of arson had other reasonable explanations. In the room where the kids were- there were signs of accelerant all over the floor.

When someone sprays/pours gas or some other flammable on the floor to set a fire- the floor will leave marks long after the fire is extinguished. So apparently in this case there were these marks all over the floor- even Todd’s defense attorney admits till this day that he believes his client was indeed guilty.

The fire investigator who sides with the defense [who Perry claims is a little gung ho] explained it this way. He said that in back draft situations [you remember the movie don’t you? Actually Hollywood is very unrealistic in its portrayals of fires. The movie showed Back draft situations where the fire was this creeping type thing- and the fire fighters are all walking around in structures with clear view. In reality you can’t see a thing in these house fires- they are full of smoke!] the room/space is Oxygen deprived- and when Oxygen is introduced into the room- like by a broken window- that this creates a sort of back draft situation- and the reason you had the marks of accelerant on the floor- they were really the marks of the air being introduced into the room and the flame followed the path towards the windows [you had marks going all different directions on the floor].

Okay- I do understand the science somewhat- but I have never seen this happen before. Usually- when you have marks like this on the floor- they are sure sings of an accelerant being used.

Either way Todd was executed and his case is getting national attention. I can go on and talk about all the guys who were on death row- who were later found to be innocent. Texas actually has a history of using faulty findings to convict people.

Obviously there are many cases of guilty persons being put to death- and many of these guys do claim to be innocent- when they are not. But we have to question a system that puts people on death row with such weak evidence- or using ‘science’ that is questionable.

Even though we do our best in the fire service to make these determinations- yet I would never allow a determination like this to be used to condemn a man to death- and it might just be that we did indeed kill an innocent man.

www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com

No comments:

Post a Comment