Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina, who was once indicted in arson, was Gov. Rick Perry’s general counsel when Perry denied a stay of execution to Cameron Todd Willingham. Willingham received the death penalty for the alleged arson deaths of his three daughters. Perry appointed Medina to the high court in November, 2004. In a controversial 2007 case involving the burning of their home, Medina and his wife were indicted — and subsequently cleared — in connection with a fire experts ruled was arson. They were accused of tampering with the evidence.
Texas Governor Rick Perry is trying to cover-up his office's responsibility and actions surrounding the Cameron Todd Willingham execution case. The Houston Chronicle recently reported (and we echoed on BOR) that Perry's office is refusing to release documents pertaining to exactly how and when their office discussed the information that the arson evidence was bogus. Now we may have learned why Perry's office doesn't want anyone to know who was involved:
If David Medina was the man in the room dismissing the arson evidence, and he was indicted for arson fraud himself, well...
The Anderson Cooper feature outright stole the Houston Chronicle's exclusive story last week (without giving them credit) on the new information that Perry's office had information on the faulty arson evidence 88 minutes before Willingham was executed. The feature also has an interview with fired Commissioner Sam Bassett and Texas Monthly Senior Editor Michael Hall.
"We close at five." It took these four words for Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller to deny a convicted killer's last appeal. On September 25, the same day the U.S. Supreme Court granted a writ of certiorari to a Kansas inmate questioning the constitutionality of lethal injection, Michael Richard was scheduled to be executed. The attorneys for the Texas Defenders Service requested that the court clerk's office remain open 20 minutes after the 5 p.m. closing time because their computers had crashed. Keller shocked the world by closing the court's office at 5 p.m. on an execution day without even consulting any of the other judges of the court. As a result, a man was executed without being able to have the merits of his last appeal considered by the criminal justice system.
