Maurice Possley of The Marshall Project, writing in The Washington Post, reports that new evidence has emerged showing that Texas wrongly executed Cameron Todd Willingham in 2004 for killing his three daughters. Willingham is widely considered to be the first known case of an innocent man being put to death by the U.S. justice system.
The forensic case against Willingham — he was accused of setting fire to the house where his daughters were sleeping in 1991 — fell apart long ago. (Debunking the accusations of arson was a key aspect of a famous New Yorker profile of Willingham.) That left the testimony of Johnny E. Webb, a felon who had shared a prison cell with Willingham and who had testified that Willingham had confessed to the crime.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Supreme Court rules against Trump on aid freezeSpeed Read The court rejected the president's request to freeze nearly $2 billion in payments for foreign humanitarian work
-
'If you keep people permanently unhappy, you cannot have a stable society'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
The Nare Hotel: a charming hideaway on the Cornish coastThe Week Recommends Upgrade your classic seaside holiday at this five-star country house hotel
-
ABC News to pay $15M in Trump defamation suitSpeed Read The lawsuit stemmed from George Stephanopoulos' on-air assertion that Trump was found liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll
-
Judge blocks Louisiana 10 Commandments lawSpeed Read U.S. District Judge John deGravelles ruled that a law ordering schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms was unconstitutional
-
ATF finalizes rule to close 'gun show loophole'Speed Read Biden moves to expand background checks for gun buyers
-
Hong Kong passes tough new security lawSpeed Read It will allow the government to further suppress all forms of dissent
-
France enshrines abortion rights in constitutionspeed read It became the first country to make abortion a constitutional right
-
Texas executes man despite contested evidenceSpeed Read Texas rejected calls for a rehearing of Ivan Cantu's case amid recanted testimony and allegations of suppressed exculpatory evidence
-
Supreme Court wary of state social media regulationsSpeed Read A majority of justices appeared skeptical that Texas and Florida were lawfully protecting the free speech rights of users
-
Greece legalizes same-sex marriageSpeed Read Greece becomes the first Orthodox Christian country to enshrine marriage equality in law
