Willingham arson case revives Texas death penalty debate

By DAVE MONTGOMERY

dmontgomery@star-telegram.com

Coming Monday: A look at the investigative techniques that led to the arson ruling.

CORSICANA — The call came in at midmorning on a chilly Monday, two days before Christmas in 1991.

Firefighter Ron Franks could see a dark column of smoke from six blocks away.

When he arrived, smoke and flames were rolling out of the windows and front door of the half-century-old frame house at 1213 W. 11th St. A shirtless man was outside.

“My babies are in there,” he told Franks.

Amber, the 2-year-old, was given CPR and rushed to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The lifeless bodies of the 1-year-old twins — Karmon Diane and Kameron Marie — were recovered from a bedroom.

By any measure, the deaths of the three children were a tragedy that gripped the entire town. But the next two weeks produced yet another dimension that seemed incomprehensible: Cameron Todd Willingham, the anguished father in the front yard, was accused of setting the fire and killing his kids.

The following August, Willingham was convicted and sentenced to death. After nine state and federal courts rejected his appeals, he was executed by lethal injection on Feb. 17, 2004, professing his innocence in a final statement.

A dark chapter

For many of Corsicana’s 25,000 residents, the execution ended a dark chapter — one that began unfolding the same year that American troops were fighting the first Persian Gulf War and Russians were celebrating the end of communism.

But the case of Cameron Todd Willingham has returned in this former boomtown 50 miles southeast of Dallas.

Nine fire experts have challenged the arson investigation that was fundamental to the state’s case against Willingham, raising the possibility that the fire may have started accidentally. The renewed scrutiny has received national news coverage, much of it centering on Gov. Rick Perry, who denied Willingham’s late-hour bid for a postponement.

Perry, the state’s longest-serving governor, has come under fire for replacing three members of the Texas Forensic Science Commission just as it was preparing to review fire expert Craig Beyler’s report criticizing the arson investigation. Perry’s critics accused the Republican governor of orchestrating the shake-up to derail the inquiry, but Perry has vigorously defended his actions, depicting Willingham as “a monster.”

Ex-wife says her husband was guilty

The debate has also produced conflicting images of Willingham. Those who share Perry’s view feel that justice was served, describing Willingham as a sociopath who poured accelerant on the floor of the house, who felt the children hindered his lifestyle, who beat his wife in an unsuccessful attempt to cause a miscarriage.

One witness recalled that Willingham bragged about the time he and a half brother stole a dog, beat it in the head with a stick and ran over it with a car, although Willingham later told a friend he didn’t harm the animal.

“I believe he was guilty,” his ex-wife said Saturday night. Stacy Kuykendall, who now goes by her maiden name, confirmed earlier reports that Willingham told her before his execution that he had set fire to the house and killed the children because he knew that she was going to leave him.

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