Defrosting Cold Cases

The Sentinel Source reports that ”Prosecutors and defense attorneys last week filed a request for jury selection in David B. McLeod’s trial to begin Aug. 1, according to Senior Assistant Attorney General N. William Delker. McLeod was indicted last year on four counts of murder, accused of setting a blaze that killed Carl R. Hina, 49, Lori [...]

Tags: Arson Detection, Autopsy, Cameron Todd Willingham, Crime Scene, Cruelty, Daniel Dougherty, David McLeod, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, Forensics, Hina Family, Identification, Investigations Division, Kenneth Richey, New Hampshire, Police, Victim, Witnesses

More fire experts have ruled the Willingham fire accidental instead of arson. As you will recall, Willingham was executed by the state of Texas for the murder of his little girls who died in the fire. Here are links to some articles I found today: CNN,  the Dallas News, and the Star-Telegram. Since I have written [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Arson Detection, Autopsy, Cameron Todd Willingham, Capital Punishment, Crime Scene, Cruelty, Death Row, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Miscarriage of Justice, Police, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Texas, Victim, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions

2011 is one week old and I wonder….did I really take a break? This week on DCC, we saw the new theme Clouseau is still working on. We need to straighten out the home page and the blogroll, we know. We also received some feedback from readers about the new “look.” Easier to navigate was [...]

Tags: Cameron Todd Willingham, Crime, DNA

I raise my glass to possibilities! We have an exciting year ahead of us. For the first time in history, the Zeigler case will be open to students from Penn State CSI and I look forward to hearing their discussions. This collaboration between Penn State CSI, Defrosting Cold Cases, and the Zeigler legal defense team is exclusive [...]

Tags: Cameron Todd Willingham, Henry Skinner, Mike Silcock, PennState University, Richard A. Lapointe, William Thomas Zeigler

The PBS-TV series “Frontline” will debut its look at the Cameron Todd Willingham case today at 9 p.m., when a program titled “Death By Fire” debuts.  The questions: did Texas execute an innocent man? Several controversial death penalty cases are currently under examination in Texas and in other states, but it’s the 2004 execution of Cameron [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Arson Detection, Autopsy, Cameron Todd Willingham, Capital Punishment, Crime Scene, Cruelty, Death Row, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Miscarriage of Justice, Police, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Texas, Victim, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions

Via Texas Moratorium Network: The Texas Fire Marshal’s Association is holding its 12th Annual Texas Fire Marshals’ Conference Oct 18-22 in Austin at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. It will be interesting to see if any of their members will criticize State Fire Marshal Paul Maldonado for writing a letter to the Texas Forensic Science Commission [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Arson Detection, Autopsy, Cameron Todd Willingham, Capital Punishment, Crime Labs, Crime Scene, Cruelty, Death Row, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Miscarriage of Justice, Police, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Texas, Victim, Wrongful Convictions

Stephen Saloom, the policy director of the New York-based Innocence Project, said prosecutor John Bradley shows “a critically important lack of objectivity” in his approach to the case of Cameron Todd Willingham. Bradley has publicly called Willingham a “guilty monster.” Bradley is the chairman of the Texas Forensic Science Commission, which is investigating whether fire [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Arson Detection, Autopsy, Cameron Todd Willingham, Capital Punishment, Crime Labs, Crime Scene, Death Row, DNA, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Miscarriage of Justice, Police, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Texas, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions

The district attorney of Navarro County sought the recusal of state District Judge Charlie Baird in a high-profile court of inquiry that was set to start today to determine whether Cameron Todd Willingham was wrongfully executed by the state of Texas for the deaths of his three daughters. The motion raised the possibility that the two-day hearing [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Arson Detection, Autopsy, Cameron Todd Willingham, Capital Punishment, Crime Scene, Cruelty, Death Row, Evidence, Faulty Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Miscarriage of Justice, Police, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Texas, Victim, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions

The inquiry into the Willingham case will be held in his courtroom on Oct. 6-7, but Judge Baird said that it could be extended if necessary.  Supporters of Cameron Todd Willingham hailed the Austin district judge’s decision last Monday to open a two-day court of inquiry next month. He will determine whether Willingham was wrongfully convicted and [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Arson Detection, Autopsy, Cameron Todd Willingham, Capital Punishment, Crime Labs, Crime Scene, Death Row, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Miscarriage of Justice, Police, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Texas, Victim, Wrongful Convictions

Lawyers for Cameron Todd Willingham, executed for the 1991 arson murder of his three young daughters in Corsicana, today petitioned a judge in Travis County to consider whether Willingham was wrongly convicted. The lawsuit was filed by lawyers for Willingham’s relatives this afternoon with state District Judge Charlie Baird, who last year issued the state’s [...]

Tags: Actual Innocence, Arson Detection, Autopsy, Cameron Todd Willingham, Capital Punishment, Crime Labs, Crime Scene, Death Row, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Miscarriage of Justice, Police, Prisons, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Texas, Victim, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions