Cameron Todd Willingham, Texas, and the death penalty
That's a 17 page article. If you don't want to read the whole thing let me summarize what happened.
Dude's house burned and his three kids died. He got convicted on the testimony of his town's fire inspectors, who cited certain stuff as evidence of arson. He declined a plea bargain for life in prison if he pleaded guilty. Years later, close to his initial execution date, this lady took up his cause because certain things didn't sit right. While he was probably abusive to his wife there were no records to indicate he was ever abusive to the children (in fact, there was evidence to the contrary, that those children were everything to him), indicating no motive. He was a troubled youth but his parole officer had testified he was turning his life around significantly. Most importantly, he continually maintained his innocence. Somehow, she was able to get some arson experts to review the evidence and it was confirmed that the fire was accidentally started by a faulty heater - in a nut shell, the town's inspectors were using incorrect methods and wrongly concluded arson. This was agreed upon independently by three different arson experts.
So, in other words, the dude was in prison because he was a dick who listened to heavy metal (during trial, they portrayed him as a heartless sociopath because he listened to Led Zeppelin and Iron Maiden). Also, an inmate who was incarcerated with him claimed he'd confessed secretly. Obviously, you can throw the first one out without thinking twice. Jailhouse confessions are also useless. Said inmate later changed his mind twice about the supposed confession.
So with no motive, confirmation from three experts that it was an accidental fire, and him holding strong that he hadn't done it, he put in a final appeal to the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole. They ignored it. Rick Perry then declined clemency, saying that the facts of the case still held up. Note that every "fact" in the case is dismantled in the link above, which means he probably didn't even read it.
He was killed on February 17th, 2004 via lethal injection.
The Innocent Project found out about this case and brought it to attention. A committee was formed to investigate forensic evidence in Texas. They began finding tons of problems with arson cases. Shortly before they were to decide on Willingham's case, Rick Perry replaced three members of the board. They then ruled that any evidence presented before 2005 was useless.
My hope is that, with Rick Perry running for President in 2012, this stuff will be brought back into the forefront. It is of dire necessity, not just because Rick Perry is yet another ass-faced Republican but because - unlike Casey Anthony - it is 100% proven Willingham was innocent. Texas put an innocent man to death and because Perry could have stopped it and then subsequently tried to cover it up (he's denied this, lol) his path is the best way to achieve justice for Cameron Todd Willingham. Also, the final argument that people for the death penalty can be brought to by someone who knows how to debate (every other argument for it can be debunked or rendered null) is that it has never been proven we put an innocent to death.
Justice for Willingham means we put an innocent to death.