Ex-wife of Texas man executed for killing their 3 kids repeats her claim he confessed

Ex-wife backs execution in Texas arson-murder case
Cameron Todd Willingham's ex-wife says he told her that he killed their daughters. Did the state of Texas execute an innocent man? His ex-wife doesn't think so. A Judge is set to weigh claims of innocence next week on behalf of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed for setting a fire that killed his three daughters in 1991. State District Judge Charles Baird granted a hearing request from Willingham'smother and sister on whether he was wrongfully convicted using flawed...

Judge delays hearing into whether a Texas man was wrongly executed in a disputed arson case
Austin, Texas — A Judge asked to re-examine Arson evidence used to convict a man executed for killing his three daughters postponed a hearing in the case on Wednesday, after prosecutors asked him to step aside. State District Judge Charles Baird delayed the hearing in the Cameron Todd Willingham case until Oct. 14, telling the court he wanted to give an Attorney for Willingham's family time to respond to prosecutors' request to have him removed. In the meantime, Baird may decide to recu...

Texas delays hearing into whether executed man was innocent
Stumble This! Austin, Texas — A court hearing to determine whether a man executed in 2004 was innocent of burning to death his three young daughters was postponed Wednesday when prosecutors asked the Judge to take himself off the case. Cameron Todd Willingham's family is seeking to have his name cleared amid claims that the evidence Arson investigators used in his 1992 trial was based on flawed science. If the court exonerates Willingham of killing his three daughters he will be the first...

Judge to review conviction in Texas arson-murder case
Cameron Todd Willingham A Texas Judge is set to consider whether a man who was executed for setting a fire that killed his Children was wrongly convicted on what his supporters call "Junk Science." State District Judge Charles Baird granted a request from Cameron Todd Willingham's family for a hearing to investigate whether he was wrongfully convicted using flawed Science. The family's petition, filed September 24 in Travis County, also asks the Court to examine whether the...

Corsicana DA seeks Baird's recusal in Willingham case
State District Judge Charlie Baird's planned inquiry into whether Texas executed an innocent Cameron Todd Willingham in 2004 might not happen today because a prosecutor is seeking Baird's recusal. Navarro County District Attorney R. Lowell Thompson, whose office successfully prosecuted Willingham in the 1991 deaths of his three young daughters, filed a motion late Monday questioning the impartiality of Baird, who sits in Travis County. The motion cites several grounds, including that Baird...

Governor Perry gets called "disingenuous" .. but that is just part of this fight!
AUSTIN, Texas -- Candidates for high Political office usually grovel for newspaper Endorsements. Not Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Breaking from a decades-old tradition, the Governor isn't even bothering to meet with editorial writers, much less ask for their blessing. The way Perry sees it, Newspapers are old news and have lost much of their influence. In a rapidly changing media climate, Perry said he decided before the March primaries that seeking their Endorsements was a waste of time. After winnin...

Court seems skeptical on $14 million judgment
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed skeptical of a $14 million judgment given to a former death row inmate who accused New Orleans prosecutors of withholding evidence to help convict him of Murder. John Thompson, who at one point was only weeks away from being executed, successfully sued the District Attorney's office in New Orleans, arguing that former District Attorney Harry Connick showed deliberate indifference by not providing adequate training for assistant District...

Getting Off Death Row
In 1995, Shareef Cousin was sentenced to death at the age of 16 for a Crime he didn't commit. He served several years on death row in Louisiana's Angola Prison before his conviction was overturned. Now 28, Cousin is out of Prison and attending Morehouse College in Atlanta. He shared the story of his wrongful conviction in a Podcast he created as part of a competition that asked College Students for their perspectives on Capital Punishment. The Podcast competition was funded by the National...

Man executed on disproved forensics
Hurst ridiculed Testimony that burn marks found under carpet tiles were proof of an accelerant. "A liquid accelerant will not burn underneath a tile on the floor any more than it will underneath an aluminum threshold," he wrote. Vasquez testified that fire was started in three separate places, but Hurst said that because flashover had occurred, "all the burn areas were clearly contiguous. ... joined by obvious [heat] radiation." According to Hurst's report, "most of the conclusions...

14 Years on Death Row. $14 Million in Damages?
The model Electric Chair sitting on the desk of the New Orleans prosecutor Jim Williams seemed like a classic piece of Southern Gothic. But for John Thompson, it was all too real. "Seated" in the Electric Chair were photographs of five African American men that the Orleans Parish District Attorney's office had proudly sent to death row. Thompson's picture was dead center. The meaning was pretty clear, he recalls: "They were trying to kill me." Thompson spent 14 years on death...

America's Secret or Secrets
< https://www.CNN.com/2010/WORLD/americas/10/01/us.Guatemala.Apology/index.html?hpt=T2 > It would have been better for the researchers to have burned this money than to do what was done; it was by no means money that was well spent. Egregious acts within the United States of America never bolster the trust or image of our country. The embedded articles mention that today safeguards are in place, which would prevent something like this from occurring; personally I have my doubts; evil and...

Perry Still Leads in Texas
A new Texas Lyceum poll shows Gov. Rick Perry (R) leading challenger Bill White (D) in the race for Governor by five points, 48% to 43%. While White has an edge among both moderate and independent Voters, Perry has a significant lead among Conservatives. Said pollster Daron Shaw: "Bill White is hanging tough against Rick Perry, but with just 12 days before Texans head to the polls for early voting and with just 3% of Voters Undecided in this race, White's path to victory remains difficult to...

Perry, White address issues around technology fund
Perry, White address issues around technology fund 12:00 AM CDT on Tuesday, October 5, 2010 By STEVE McGONIGLE and JAMES DREW / The Dallas Morning News / The Dallas Morning News Ryan McNeill contributed to this report. Gov. Rick Perry and his Democratic opponent, Bill White, offered conflicting views Monday of reports that some of the Governor's biggest Campaign Donors were investors in companies that received awards from a state technology fund. Perry, speaking at a News Conference in...

Texas Lyceum poll shows Perry leading White
Austin, Texas — The nonpartisan Texas Lyceum poll shows that Republican Gov. Rick Perry is leading Democrat Bill White with 48 percent support among Likely Voters to White's 43 percent. The telephone poll was released Wednesday. It surveyed 416 Likely Voters. The pollsters found that most Texans have made up their minds in the race for Governor. Only 3 percent were Undecided. While White has the edge among Voters who say they are moderates or Independents, Perry has a significant lead...

Perry: White must release more income taxes or no debate
Austin — GOP Gov. Rick Perry upped the ante on the question of debating Democratic Candidate Bill White on Thursday, saying he won’t do it unless White releases additional Income Tax returns by Sept. 15. Perry has repeatedly said he said he won’t debate White unless the Democrat releases his returns from his time as deputy energy secretary under Clinton and as Texas Democratic Party chairman. Thursday was the first time Perry put a due date on his demand. “Texans are...

Houston Councilman Jarvis Johnson tied to contract flap
Houston City Councilman Jarvis Johnson's office pressured City officials to certify a security firm as a minority-owned business to win a lucrative subcontract for the company, which later gave a 40 percent ownership stake to a close Johnson associate, according to e-mails and documents obtained by the Houston Chronicle. The contract and the councilman's dealings are under investigation by the Harris County District Attorney's Office, which last month issued a Subpoena to the City seeking...

Cooley, Harris debate packs few surprises but good discussion
0 The Candidates for Attorney General squared off today in their only scheduled debate, trading jabs at the UC Davis School of Law. San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris and Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley didn't stray much from their campaign messages during the hour-long event, which was moderated by Kevin Riggs of KCRA (and included questions by yours truly, Jack Leonard of the L.A. Times and Dan Morain of the Sacramento Bee). You can check out the full debate at this li...

Texas Lyceum Poll Puts Perry Up by 5 — 2010 Texas Governor's Race
Bill White, Rick Perry at their Primary 2010 reception speeches. According to a new Texas Lyceum poll, Republican Gov. Rick Perry leads Democratic challenger Bill White by 5 points, 48 to 43 percent, among Likely Voters. Libertarian Kathie Glass comes in at 5 percent, and the Green Party's Deb Shafto got 1 percent. Only 3 percent of Likely Voters are Undecided. “Bill White is hanging tough against Rick Perry," said Daron Shaw, a Professor at the University of Texas who conducted...

Ex-wife: Willingham guilty of murder
The hearing for Cameron Todd Willingham was reset for Oct. 14 in Judge Charles Baird's courtroom. Baird has been asked to recuse himself by the district attorneys in Williamson and Navarro counties, both of whom accuse the judge of having political motivations for granting the hearing. Baird said Wednesday he would take that "under advisement." Willingham was convicted for the 1991 Murders of his three daughters. Investigators in the case say Willingham set his home on fire with the three girls...

Suspect's lawyer donated to Norfolk DA William Keating
N orfolk District Attorney William Keating accepted campaign donations from a lawyer representing a man being prosecuted by Keating’s office for attempting to gun down an off-duty Firefighter last year. Keating, a Democrat running for Congress, received two donations from Attorney John McGlone in August totaling $1,545, according to an Associated Press review of campaign records filed with the Federal Elections Commission. McGlone is also listed on Keating’s campaign website as...

Slain mother, child laid to rest
T hey were buried the way they died: A mother cradling her toddler in her arms, his hand on hers. The final embrace yesterday of Eyanna Flonory and her 2-year-old son, Amanihoteph Smith, made grown men weep, clergymen thunder and a city unite. Hundreds of mourners waited in the rain outside Morning Star Baptist Church in Mattapan, a few blocks from Woolson Street, where the mother and child were gunned down last week with three other people in what remains an unresolved mass killing in a city...

Ore. woman pleads guilty to killing pregnant woman
HILLSBORO, Ore. (AP) - An Oregon woman obsessed with having a baby pleaded guilty Wednesday to the Murder of a pregnant woman whose unborn child was cut from her abdomen after she was bludgeoned to death. Korena Roberts, 29, was sentenced to life in Prison without the possibility of Parole. Her plea means she won't face trial and a possible death sentence. She was accused of beating 21-year-old Heather Snively with a collapsible Police baton in June 2009 and using a straight razor to open Sniv...

TV ad against AG Suthers features dad of serial-killer victim
John Suthers, who is seeking re-election as Colorado Attorney General, says of the ad: "There is only one person who is responsible for these Murders, and it is Scott Kimball." (Kathryn Scott Osler, The Denver Post) The father of a Murder Victim appears in a new political ad criticizing Incumbent Colorado Attorney General John Suthers for his role in the early release of Scott Lee Kimball, a former government informant who went on to kill at least four people. Stan Garnett, Boulder County's dist...

Mass. Democrat DA Took Campaign Donations from Lawyer of Man his Office is Prosecuting
The race in the Massachusetts 10th District has recently been determined by political handicapper Charlie Cook as a “lean Democrat” race and others have declared it a dead heat. But news is now emerging that just might help the few Undecided Voters left out there to chose the Republican over the Democrat. Democrat Candidate and current Norfolk District Attorney Bill Keating seems to be in a spot of ethical trouble. The AP is reporting that Keating took campaign donations totaling $1...

News Desk: David Grann: Stacy Speaks :
The case of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in Texas in 2004 and whom I wrote about for The New Yorker last month, has taken another strange twist. Yesterday, Willingham’s former wife, Stacy Kuykendall, released a statement to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram saying that he secretly confessed to killing their three daughters, who died in a fire on December 23, 1991. Her statement directly contradicts numerous previous statements she has made: in interviews with Police and fire...