David Grann’s New Yorker piece on Todd Willingham, who was all but certainly innocent of the crime for which he was executed in 2004, is essential reading, and the full text is online.
Willingham couldn’t afford decent legal representation and so was done in by two crackpot arson investigators; a quack psychologist who testified that Willingham’s Iron Maiden and Led Zeppelin posters were evidence of a sick mind; the judge who outrageously allowed that testimony and hopefully will never again enjoy a peaceful night’s sleep; and not least of all secessionist Texas Governor Rick Perry, who’s been making a lot of noise lately about the Obama administration’s supposed “thumbing its nose at the American people,” yet who denied Willingham clemency without so much as a second thought — the ultimate act of government arrogance and disregard for the individual.
Here at Lerterland, we oppose the death penalty on predominantly libertarian grounds — no state in the union has the moral authority to take the life of its citizens. Repulsive clowns like Rick Perry (or other governors — Sarah Palin comes to mind) must under no circumstance be given power to decide the life or death of any state resident. We see in the Willingham case a breathtaking example of the corruptibility of justice, the train of events that can easily lead to a wrongful conviction. One shudders to think how many other times this has happened. Damien Echols, one of the West Memphis Three, is still on death row, essentially for the crime of having goth-style hair and not fitting in.
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