Executed man's relatives urge Texas panel to continue probe

[NNN0LHI]

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/09/08/texas.execution.probe/index.html

By Matt Smith, CNN
September 9, 2011 -- Updated 0131 GMT (0931 HKT)

Austin, Texas (CNN) -- Relatives of a man executed in 2004 urged a Texas state commission Thursday to continue probing claims that outdated scientific testimony put him on death row as members weighed a legal opinion restricting their authority.

"You can't uninvestigate a case you've already investigated," Patricia Cox, the cousin of executed convict Cameron Todd Willingham, told the Texas Forensic Science Commission. "You can't unacknowledge what you've already acknowledged."

Willingham was put to death for setting a fire that killed his three daughters in 1991, but several experts who have reviewed the testimony in his trial say the fire was likely not arson. A series of studies in the 1990s rendered obsolete most of the things investigators pointed to as proof the fire was deliberately set, they say.

The commission's investigation was delayed after Gov. Rick Perry, now a Republican presidential candidate, replaced its chairman and three other members in 2009. The former chairman, Sam Bassett, now accuses Perry of trying to derail an investigation into Willingham's execution, which the governor allowed to go forward.

[bengalherder]

1. K&R n/t

[Gregorian]

2. Can you even imagine?

If true, that would be hard to believe the suffering.