A Missouri man has been executed for the 1998 fatal stabbing of a woman despite calls by her family and the prosecutor’s office that put him on death row to let him serve out the rest of his life in prison.
“Tonight, Missouri lynched another innocent Black man,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement.
And wealthy or well-connected. If you’re poor, you don’t necessarily have much of a chance.
The link is a long read, but interesting. The story of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in Texas in 2004 for supposedly setting a fire that killed his three kids.
In December, 2004, questions about the scientific evidence in the Willingham case began to surface. Maurice Possley and Steve Mills, of the Chicago Tribune, had published an investigative series on flaws in forensic science; upon learning of Hurst’s report, Possley and Mills asked three fire experts, including John Lentini, to examine the original investigation. The experts concurred with Hurst’s report. Nearly two years later, the Innocence Project commissioned Lentini and three other top fire investigators to conduct an independent review of the arson evidence in the Willingham case. The panel concluded that “each and every one” of the indicators of arson had been “scientifically proven to be invalid.”
And wealthy or well-connected. If you’re poor, you don’t necessarily have much of a chance.
The link is a long read, but interesting. The story of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in Texas in 2004 for supposedly setting a fire that killed his three kids.