A reader writes:
I want to add nuance to the Cameron Todd Willingham thread. Please note that I am not a Perry supporter. I have never voted for him for governor and certainly would not vote for him for president. I am also very against the death penalty and, as a lawyer, have done pro bono work on behalf of capital defendants. But the Cameron Todd Willingham facts are being slightly distorted by the national media.
Perry did not sign Cameron Todd Willingham’s death warrant. In Texas, death warrants are signed by the judge who presides over the defendant’s trial. So, when the case came before Perry, the issue was a pardon. But, in Texas, a governor cannot issue a pardon unless the pardon is recommended by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. (Texas, like many former Confederate states, has a very weak governor.) The Board did not recommend a pardon or clemency in Cameron Todd Willingham’s case. In fact, it is not clear if they even reviewed the material submitted to them to demonstrate that he was probably innocent. And, of course, the Board members serving at the time of Cameron Todd Willingham’s execution were not appointed with the intent to particularly affect that case.
So, my point is that Perry really doesn’t have any particular personal complicity in Cameron Todd Willingham’s execution. (He is, in my view, one of many people who advocates for such an immoral punishment scheme and thus bears liability in that sense.) This knowledge about Perry makes his subsequent actions seem both more moral and less moral in my view. Perry did interfere with the commission investigating Cameron Todd Willingham’s execution in a manner that will probably preclude the commission from examining the case going forward. He did this not to protect himself from personal liability as he really has none. He did it because he (like many, many officials in Texas) is interested in bolstering our corrupt and immoral capital punishment system.
The Dish 