The Execution of An Innocent Man
“The only statement I want to make is that I am an innocent man – convicted of a crime I did not commit. I have been persecuted for 12 years for something I did not do. From God’s dust I came and to dust I will return – so the earth shall become my throne.”
Cameron T. Willingham, moments before his execution, Feburary 17th, 2004.
Cameron T. Willingham was executed in Texas in 2004. A man running from a past checkered with stints in rehab for drugs and alcohol, he was found guilty of burning down the home which he shared with his wife and three children. The children were killed from smoke inhalation, inside the home, as Willingham was outside.
Accounts of what happened on that fateful day in 1992 tend to vary. Some say that Willingham had to be restrained as he attempted to run into the blaze to save his children; others say that he stood calmly on the lawn as the blaze picked up and his children burned alive. However, a new report from the New Yorker reveals that – without a shadow of a doubt – Willingham was not guilty.
The New Yorker’s report points out that many of the people who had a hand in Willingham’s homicide either used structural flaws in the justice system for their own personal benefit or seemingly felt no guilt serving as a cog in the legal murder machine. Let’s look at the arson investigator in the Willingham case: one would imagine that to qualify for such a position you’d need years of training as well as a keen eye for scientific facts, but arson investigators are expected to learn ‘on the job’ after a basic 40 hour course in fire investigation. I’ve taken a 40 hour course myself: to learn how to bartend.
One would hope a retrial or a stay of execution could be in the cards? Not so much. According to state records, between “1976 and 2004, when Willingham filed his petition, the State of Texas had approved only one application for clemency from a prisoner on death row.” Out of hundreds of prisoners, only one has been granted clemency: put another way, only one of those prisoners was moved from death row to life in prison. The reasoning behind this? The decision is done by a ‘secret board’ who often do not even read the new evidence or reports that are submitted.
This power to sanction the ultimate social retribution is a dangerous one. How can we – in the 21st century – argue that the death penalty is effective, when this is simply one of the many cases in which an innocent man’s life has been ruined or taken away from him? Our elected officials must reevaluate this heinous and archaic punishment. Too many lives have been ruined. Too many children will go to bed tonight as their parent sits in prison or on death row because they couldn’t afford a high powered lawyer.
Answer me this: in an era where to be American is to be free, why are so many sitting in cells for crimes they did not commit? Or are murdered by state sanctioned officials for things they didn’t do?
