Noooo ... We Don't Put Innocent Men on Death Row
As we've discussed here before, Rick Perry is pretty damned insistent that he did not kill an innocent man. For a millisecond, it seemed like he might be right, because Cameron Todd Willingham's ex-wife said he confessed to her.
But she's a liar. Other places won't say it, but I will. She lies. She's a lying liar who lies. Maybe he did confess, but it contradicts everything else she's ever said. So she lied then, or she's lying now. But by any definition, she's a lying liar who lies.
Grits for Breakfast has an excellent breakdown of her inconsistencies, but let's just take one - her statement to the Corsicana Daily Sun in 2004. In that story, she said she became convinced of his guilt, but that even a pre-execution visit didn't result in a confession to her.
She either lied then, or she's lying now.
Then we have someone who actually knew Willingham on the inside - fellow death row inmate Ernest Willis. Willis told Texas Monthly's Michael Hall that he had spoken to Willingham, and the two compared cases.
"We discussed a little bit about our cases and found out they was nearly identical," he told Hall. "I believe in my heart and soul that he was an innocent man. I believe Texas killed an innocent man."
And if anyone's an authority on getting on death row when you're innocent, it's Ernest Willis, who had some very sage advice for Governor Perry. Admit the mistake, he said.
"It’s not going to die down - step up to the plate and do your job," he added.
If you won't, Gov. Perry, we'll find someone who will do your job - and hopefully better.
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Catherine Forsythe
Nick Carraway
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Comments
"Ah ain't spendin' the people's money own sumpin so stupeed as a DNA test after the jury spoke," I imagined him drawling.
I guess it's the culture of Texas and the people who live there. They pride themselves on being God-fearing, law and order conservatives and if it means a few dozen people are wrongly sent to their deaths, so be it.
The Houston paper is suing for the clemency report Perry is refusing to cough up.
We already know the TX electoral system needs an overhaul.
Christopher - Be very careful with your blanket statements regarding an entire state and its people. One of those wrote this post. Your guess is wrong and actually pretty ridiculous.
If the Houston Paper gets the clemency report, will you be writing another blog entry on it? I'd love to learn of the outcome.
Tarring every Texan with the same brush speaks of someone who hasn't really looked at how these people keep getting re-elected in Texas. But that's a whole other blog post, really.
Short version: Both Bush and Perry (but especially Perry) play up this "good ol' boy" thing to the hilt in rural Texas - which is where the majority of the voters live. If you look at certain counties - Dallas County, Travis County - that have large cities, Democrats nearly always win. The last Democratic gubernatorial candidate carried Dallas County and (if I recall correctly) Travis County. It's the country boy image Perry plays up ("I'm the son of a poor farmer, I'm just like you.") that reels in the rural folk.
First off, ripping off now Senator Franken's "lies and the lying liars" motif both screams of hackdom and also trivializes the situation. His ex-wife isn't being a hypocrite along partisan lines, as the rightful targets of Franken's satire were.
While it's unfortunate her statement hasn't forwarded the Willingham cause, reflexively bashing her isn't going to help anyone. Just look at her background. This is a woman who, according to multiple accounts, was routinely battered in her marriage -- physically and mentally, suffered the loss of three daughters -- all two and under, and ... viewed through the totality of this case, has not only refrained from seeking out the spotlight, she's gone to great lengths to AVOID it.
She DID stand by her husband through the original trial and later, clearly, something went horribly wrong in their relationship (judging from his behavior at his execution) ... but I've seen no attempt on her part to "cash in" on her role in this tragedy and the resultant controversy.
So this entry not only fails to advance the cause in which it supports, it's also virulently offensive and just looks to be (snidely) beating up on a woman who has suffered as much as anyone in this case.
PLEASE do not follow this writer's lead. If you have specific conflicts between what she said at the time of the trial and what she's saying now ... fine ... state 'em and get 'em out there. Whatever.
But inartful, abusive treatment like this feels like anger, zealotry and misplaced priorities.
And did I mention "hackey"?
She either lied then, or she lied now. Either way, she lied. And by doing so, she's only aiding in delaying something that needs to happen - a comprehensive review of the Willingham case, and a moratorium on executions until the state can sort all of this out.
I have written plenty about battered women in my lifetime as a reporter. I've also volunteered at battered women's shelters. But you can't put a man to death for battering a woman, or for thinking he might've done killed his kids, not when outdated, disproven methodology was used to garner the evidence used to convict him.
Before you call me a hack, read the articles I linked to. I think you'll see as well that there is something extremely hinky about this. Maybe it's just the worries of a woman who has been thrust into the limelight again because of this, hoping that if she says he confessed, it'll die down.
Maybe she's telling the truth now. But the problem is, she's been remarkedly inconsistent.
I'll take you at your word on all that.
I just thought your post was way too glib in it's asssessment of Ms. Kuykendall.
Your follow-up comes closer to hitting the proper tone when dealing with complexities of matters like this.
I did not and will not suggest wife beating is a justification for his execution ... I WILL say that, in my own experience, the further removed from an abusive husband a battered woman is, the more likely she'll speak the truth.
To that point, I believe she originally denied she was ever beaten, as many victims do in the immediate aftermath.
While, technically this may make such a woman a "liar," I put forth it's probably bad form to categorize her as such.
You may be right in your reasoning, but if things like compassion and decorum are tossed overboard here, it's not going to help anybody.
I'd call that pretty removed from the situation.
When she later gives a statement you DON'T want her to, she's just telling reporters what she wants to hear so they'll go away.
This is EXACTLY why this is a pointless and ultimately destructive road to go down. There's no "win" here.
AT BEST, you're discrediting a woman who -- like her on not -- has been through an emotional wringer.
Congrats. The cost for this victory? Most likely turning off moderates ... probably permanently.
Hinky or not, this particular line of argument is a totally lost cause.
I imagine that the people who do the majority of Texas bashing have never been out of the county they live in!
All Texans aren't bad Texans. Perry is a bad Texan. Bush was a bad "Texan"....(he isn't from Texas..he is from the NE>)
The good, sane citizens of Texas often have to swim upstream to elect anyone competent, thanks to the machinations of DeLay and others like him, who abhor nothing so much as a fair contest.