Rick Perry executed a father of three after a Texas prosecutor hid
evidence proving him innocent

Earlier this month, the state bar of Texas filed a misconduct charge
against a prosecutor who obtained a conviction in one of the country’s
most controversial death penalty cases, accusing him of hiding evidence
that could have exonerated a father of murder.

The filing alleges that John Jackson withheld evidence that could have
proved the innocence of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in
2004 for the murder of his three young daughters after they died in a
house fire in 1991.

“Before, during, and after the 1992 trial, [Jackson] knew of the
existence of evidence that tended to negate the guilt of Willingham, and
failed to disclose that evidence to defense counsel,” the charge reads.

According to the complaint, Jackson also lied to the court saying that
he had no evidence that could help Willingham’s defense.


Despite mounting concern that Willingham was innocent, the former Texas
governor Rick Perry refused to stay his execution. In 2009, after an
investigation by the Texas Forensic Science Commission found that the
arson evidence was faulty, Perry replaced the board’s chairman and two
other members and called Willingham “a monster.”

The execution was briefly a contentious topic during Perry’s bid for the
Republican nomination for the 2012 US presidential election. During a
debate, Perry was asked whether the possibility of having executed an
innocent person made it hard for him to sleep at night. “No, sir, I’ve
never struggled with that at all,” replied Perry, now a possible
Republican presidential candidate again.

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Proud to be a Liberal.