Innocence Project Report: Cameron Todd Willingham

In the Willingham case, the Innocent Project Report (IPR), in their executive Summary, found the fire was not an incendiary fire. http://www.innocenceproject.org/docs/ArsonReviewReport.pdf
The IPR provided no evidence of that and no other source for the fire was established. Discounting their statement goes to their lack of proof/evidence for the claim, for which they have none.

Todd Willingham murdered my 3 daughters

Stacy Kuykendall’s statement about the 1991 fire”, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 10.25/09
http://www.star-telegram.com/texas/story/1709042-p3.html
“Stacy Kuykendall, the ex-wife of Cameron Todd Willingham, offers her first detailed account of the 1991 fire that claimed the lives of her three daughters and led to Willingham’s execution in 2004.

Physicians & The State Execution of Murderers: No Ethical/Medical Dilemma

Physicians & The State Execution of Murderers: No Ethical/Medical Dilemma
The Hippocratic Oath and “Do No Harm” have nothing to do with executions
Dudley Sharp, Justice Matters, contact info below
Some in the medical community have attempted to create an ethical prohibition against medical professionals involvement in state executions by invoking the famous “do no harm” credo and the Hippocratic Oath.
It is a dishonest effort. Neither reference is in the context of the state execution of murderers. I find the effort to ban medical professionals participation in executions an unethical effort to fabricate professional ethical standards, based upon personal anti death penalty feelings.

Why Gov. Perry shook up the Texas Forensic Science Commission

Gov. Perry’s replacement of the Forensics Science Commission (FSC) members hurt him politically. He knew it would, yet he did it anyway. Why?
The ridiculous speculation, that such was part of a cover-up to hide the evidence of an innocent executed, Cameron Todd Willingham, was humorous.
Perry’s actions, brought more light, more suspicion and more outrage to a case that was, already, fully exposed.

Cameron Todd Willingham: Media meltdown & the death penalty:”Trial by Fire: Did Texas execute an innocent man?”, by David Grann(1)

I could speculate that David Grann was an objective reporter who made the solid, unbiased case for an innocent executed. But, I think that is already being done, around the globe, with editorial writers and journalists and other anti death penalty activists, quoting extensively from Grann’s article, with little or no fact checking and absent critical thinking.
So, why not do something different?
I’ll speculate this: “David Grann, anti death penalty activist/member of the defense team”.
I list the page number in the article, followed by Grann’s comments then, my REPLY, underneath.

Have you read the Beyler report? from Dudley Sharp, contact at bottom

Have you read the Beyler report? from Dudley Sharp, contact at bottom
Beyler Report Link at bottom
Here is an almost unbelievable example of how bad it can be:
p 46 “The appearance of brown stain on the porch at the front door was
taken as an indicator of an accelerant spill which was ignited to start the
fire. “AC Fogg did not consider or explain how this could be true in light of
the early eyewitnesses who saw no fire on the porch or at the front door.”
Dr. Beyler, try this.
Willingham lit the fire from the porch, as the fire traveled inside, the
fire died down on the porch, as the accelerant was consumed. The fire travels
down the hall into the children’s room, the fire expands in the bedroom as
it ignites all of the flammables.

A Broken Study: A Review of “A Broken System:

Based upon another, neutral source, the overturning rate, for that same period, is 30% and, likely, lower (2).
Of the 5555 sentenced to death, from 1973-1995, the period of the study, 1648 cases, or less than 30%, were overturned because of some error in conviction or sentence.
Even the 30% is too high, because some of those cases were overturned because of either new legislative or case law that didn’t exist at the time of the trial.

The Federalist Society: Sotomayor Debate Comments

The Federalist Society: Sotomayor Debate Comments Posted July 23, 2009
http://www.fed-soc.org/debates/id.420,dbtid.31/view_comments.asp
[Lester Jackson, Ph.D.] I was very disappointed that the Sotomayor hearings and debates almost totally ignored how activist justices have eviscerated the death penalty. There are few areas with so many concrete and easy-to-understand examples of how activism has harmed ordinary law-abiding citizens. I have written a detailed list of questions* based on actual specific egregious Supreme Court decisions that would shock a substantial majority if ever adequately reported (or even mentioned) by the media. No one should expect the questions to be answered honestly by any activist nominee. The main point is that they be asked repeatedly, now and in the future. Just doing so would raise public awareness of the damage caused by activist justices (including more murder victims).

Death Penalty Questions for Sotomayor

Death Penalty Questions for Sotomayor
…and the Senators who vote to confirm her
By Lester Jackson Ph.D.
TCS Daily 16 July 2009
http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=071509A
NOTE: Numbers in parentheses are pages and footnotes in the detailed paper downloadable here.
The death penalty has received little attention in the Sotomayor debate. However, when a massive 707,000 homicides in 36 years (one every 27 minutes) result in 1,136 executions (0.16%), capital punishment has been all but abolished (42-43). What remains is a costly, agonizing farce, dragging out cases for decades (48).

The Subversion of Capital Punishment

What they lack in popular support, death penalty opponents more than make up in tenacity, skill – and success. When a one-per-27 minutes, 36-year, 707,000 homicide holocaust results in 1,136 executions (0.16%), capital punishment has been all but abolished. What remains is a costly and agonizing farce, with a token few murderers served up to fool the public. The United States Supreme Court and other courts have played a major role, enormously aided by the media in suppressing critical information.

No doubts: Those closest to case shed no tears for Willingham By Janet Jacobs, Corsicana Daily Sun

No doubts: Those closest to case shed no tears for Willingham By Janet Jacobs, Corsicana Daily Sun Published: September 07, 2009 05:08 pm      http://www.corsicanadailysun.com/thewillinghamfiles/local_story_250180658.html      The undeniable facts of the Cameron Todd Willingham case are these:   • On Dec.

The Death Penalty: Neither Hatred nor Revenge

Death penalty opponents say that the death penalty has a foundation in hatred and revenge. Such is a false claim.
A death sentence requires pre existing statutes, trial and appeals, considerations of guilt and due process, extreme protections for defendants and those convicted. Revenge requires none of these and, in fact, does not even require guilt or a crime.
Unlike revenge, those directly affected by the murder are not allowed to be fact finders in a legal case.
The pre trial, trial. appellate and executive clemency/commutation processes offer much greater time and human resources to capital cases than they do to any other cases, meaning that the facts tell us that defendants and convicted murderers, subject to the death penalty, receive much greater care and concern than those not facing the death penalty – the opposite of a system identified with either hatred or vengeance.

Death Penalty Polls – Support Remains Very High – 80%

April, 2009
When polls correctly ask about true capital, death penalty eligible
murders, support is around 80%.
Most familiar polls wrongly ask a variation of “Do you support the death
penalty for murder?”, usually getting replies in the 60-75% range.
However, in the US, the death penalty is only allowed for those who commit
capital murders. Therefore, all polls, which only refer to murders are
irrelevant when asking about death penalty support.
Death penalty support is much deeper and much wider than we are often led
to believe.

The Death Penalty: More Protection for Innocents

Often, the death penalty dialogue gravitates to the subject of innocents at risk of execution. Seldom is a more common problem reviewed. That is, how innocents are more at risk without the death penalty.
Of all the government programs in the world, that put innocents at risk, is there one with a safer record and with greater protections than the US death penalty?
Unlikely.
Enhanced Due Process
No knowledgeable and honest party questions that the death penalty has the most extensive due process protections in US criminal law.
Therefore, actual innocents are more likely to be sentenced to life imprisonment and more likely to die in prison serving under that sentence, that it is that an actual innocent will be executed.
That is. logically, conclusive.
Enhanced Incapacitation

Deterrence and the Death Penalty: A Reply to Radelet and Lacock

Subject:”Do Executions Lower Homicide Rates? The Views of Leading Criminologists”, by Michael Radelet, Traci Lacock (1)
There appears to be a lot of confusion, with regard to the actual findings of the subject review/survey (hereinafter “Survey”).
SOME REALITY
Within this Survey, the response to question 12 finds that 100% (or 77) of the criminologists agree that the death penalty may deter some.
It is a rational conclusion. All prospects of a negative outcome/consequence deter the behavior of some. It is a truism.
The responses to question 8 found that 61% (or 46) of the criminologists found some support for the deterrent effects of the death penalty through the empirical, social science studies.
16 recent studies, inclusive of their defenses (2), find for death penalty deterrence. These studies find executions deter from 4-28 murders per execution.
Life is preferred over death. Death is feared more than life. No surprise.
If your public policy question is “Does the death penalty deter?” The answer is “Of course it does.”
Game over? Not quite.