( - promoted by Phillip Martin)
The "Investigative Committee on the Willingham/Willis Case" of the Texas Forensic Science Commission is holding secret, private, closed-door meetings without any public notice to discuss the Todd Willingham investigation. Willingham was executed in 2004 for an arson that killed his three young daughters.
Dr. Craig Beyler, one of the nation's top fire experts, who was hired by the Forensic Science Commission to investigate the case, submitted a report to the Commission in August 2009 that said "a finding of arson could not be sustained".
Other committees of the FSC are also being held in secret. Since the four-person Willingham/Willis committee does not form a quorum of the entire nine member Commission, it is not subject to the Open Meetings Act - which means it can legally deliberate in secret. However, the members of the Commission can vote to make all meetings public and to follow the rules of the Open Meetings Act.
Unless, the policy is changed, the public will not be privy to discussions by the four-member panel of the Commission that is responsible for scrutinizing the reliability of the arson investigation used to convict Todd Willingham.
Given the fact that Governor Rick Perry abruptly replaced the former chair of the FSC two days before it was set to discuss the Beyler report last October and named John Bradley as the new chair, it is imperative that all committee meetings are held in public in order to help allay fears that Perry and Bradley are orchestrating a cover-up of the execution of an innocent person until at least after the November election.
The Dallas Morning News had an editorial yesterday saying that the Texas Forensic Science Commission should hold public meetings of all of its committees, including the committee dealing with the Todd Willingham investigation. The DMN calls the FSC Chair's secret meetings "an awful approach".
Texas Moratorium Network started an online petition to allow the public to contact FSC Chair John Bradley and other members of the Commission to urge them to hold public meetings. An email is sent to the Commission every time someone signs, hence it is an "email petition". The key petition text reads: I believe all discussions and deliberations regarding the Todd Willingham investigation should be conducted in meetings that are open to the public and members of the media in order to enhance transparency and public confidence in the commission's work. From yesterday's DMN Editorial:Secret meetings run contrary to a basic principle of public service. State law and the Texas Constitution give some investigatory bodies authority to conduct business confidentially. The State Commission on Judicial Conduct is one. The forensics commission, however, is not.
Nowhere did lawmakers give the commission that latitude when they created it in 2005. Procedures the commission adopted in January are silent on the matter. Some commissioners said after Friday's meeting that they were surprised that committee sessions would be done in secret. Rick Casey of the Houston Chronicle wrote in a commentary Sunday that "Friday's meeting made it clear that Bradley will succeed in delaying any final report on the Willingham matter until after the November election.".Grand juries are secret mainly out of concern for the reputations of people who end up not being charged with a crime, and partly for the safety of witnesses.
But Willingham is dead and all the witnesses appeared at his trial. I can imagine evidence or witnesses that the commission may legitimately want to hear privately, but not in the Willingham case.
Having decided to have the committee work done in secret, Bradley named himself to the two most sensitive committees: the one handling the Willingham case and, even more importantly, the committee that screens complaints and recommends which ones to accept. Scott Henson of Grits for Breakfast says: under its new chairman's leadership the agency has already become a "secretive, bureaucratic body perceived as protecting licensed professionals rather than policing them." Sign the petition to urge the FSC adopt a policy of following the Open Meetings Act for all meetings held by the Texas Forensic Science Commission, including the four-person "Investigative Committee on the Willingham/Willis Case". |
