ABSTRACT
Arson investigation can be complex. …e consequences can be considerable as the following case study shows:
Cameron Todd Willingham Case On December 23, 1991, a re destroyed the Corsicana, TX, home of Cameron Todd Willingham that he shared with his wife and three daughters, killing the three girls. Willingham, who was asleep when the re started, survived. His wife was at the Salvation Army buying Christmas presents for the girls. At Willingham’s 1992 trial, prosecutors claimed he intentionally set the re to his home in order to kill his own children. Willingham said he was asleep in the home when the re started and always maintained his innocence. He was convicted based on the testimony of forensic experts who said they had determined that the re was intentionally set and a jailhouse informant who said Willingham had confessed to him. On October 29, 1992, he was sentenced to death. …irteen years later, in the days leading up to Willingham’s execution, his attorneys sent the governor and the Board of Pardon and Parole a report from Gerald Hurst, a nationally recognized arson expert, saying that Willingham’s conviction was based on erroneous forensic analysis. Documents obtained by the Innocence Project show that state o‰cials received that report but apparently did not act on it. Willingham was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, TX on February 17, 2004.
