Republican gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina sent the Houston Chronicle an op-ed on Gov. Rick Perry’s handling of the Cameron Todd Willingham execution and the investigation into whether Willingham was innocent:

The question, Governor Perry, is NOT whether or not Cameron Todd Willingham was a “bad” man. The question sir is whether or not justice was served? Was he guilty of the crime that resulted in his execution? You are not jury and judge! You are, for the moment, our governor whose job it is to see that our laws are faithfully executed.

Your behavior is beyond reprehensible. Your action here adds to the mounting body of evidence that you give lip service to life and have repeatedly abused your office and the public trust.

Watch on YouTube.

From Medina’s op-ed in the Houston Chronicle:

Now we learn that you are working overtime to suppress testimony that speaks to the accuracy of a verdict that sent a man to his death in 2004. This case is not about Cameron Todd Willingham’s character, his relationship with his wife or his employment status. It is about whether or not the evidence used to convict him of arson in a fire that resulted in the death of his three children was, in fact, arson. While that evidence will not change the outcome for Mr. Willingham, it could effect evidence and testimony in future cases and could dictate that the convictions of numerous individuals currently incarcerated on similar evidence be reviewed.

NPR had a story today on Rick Perry, Todd Willingham (Click to Listen) and Texas politics. The story includes a quote from Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Excerpt:

Capital punishment is sacrosanct in Texas, which executes more inmates than any other state. No serious candidate from either party runs against it.

So it was with some delicacy that Perry’s opponent for the Republican nomination for governor, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, took on the Willingham case.

“I just think the governor made a mistake in trying to ramrod a covering up of what might be more evidence for the future,” Hutchison told a Dallas-Fort Worth radio station.

Perry’s office pounced on Hutchison, knowing the popularity of capital punishment in Texas — upwards of 70 percent of the population support it.

“If the senator is suggesting she opposes the death penalty for an individual who murdered his three daughters, then she should just say so,” said the governor’s spokeswoman, Allison Castle.

However, the senator had started her statement by saying she’s “a steadfast supporter of the death penalty.”

“The point that Hutchison is trying to make about Rick Perry is that he’s hurt the death penalty, weakened it, by making it look to people outside Texas — and a lot of people in Texas — that he’s playing fast and loose with the death penalty,” said Dave McNeely, a longtime political journalist in Austin.

Perry, who gained his seat after George W. Bush left the Texas governor’s mansion for the White House in 2001, is the longest-serving governor in Texas history. He’s seeking an unprecedented third term.

Perry’s new chairman of the Forensic Science Commission, John Bradley, is a hard-nosed district attorney and a conservative ally of the governor. He says he needs time to study the Willingham arson report and has not set a new date for the commission to consider it.

Tenth Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty
October 24, 2009 at 2 PM
Austin, Texas
Texas State Capitol Building South Side (11th and Congress)

Three innocent, exonerated former death row prisoners will be among the special guests at the Tenth Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty October 24, 2009 at 2 PM in Austin, Texas at the Texas Capitol on the South Steps at 11th and Congress. Also attending will be the penpal of Todd Willingham, Elizabeth Gilbert, who first investigated his innocence. Plus, Todd’s last lawyer Walter Reaves. Please attend the march to support the Willingham family as they fight to prove that Todd Willingham was innocent.

Congratulations to all participants in the 10th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Thank you for your stand on this human rights abuse. I wish I could be there today but family circumstances prevent it. I have had the pleasure of participating in several other marches in the past.

The Journey of Hope…from Violence to Healing is represented on the march by Journey board member Shujaa Graham who is a murder victim family member and an exonerated death row inmate. Journey members Curtis McCarty, Delia Meyer Perez and other Journey members are present.

Murder victim family members who oppose the death penalty in all circumstances lead the Journey of Hope. Death row family members, exonerated and other activists who share their stories to put a human face on the death penalty issue, join us on our speaking tours. There have been three Journey of Hope speaking tours in Texas, the leading execution state in America, and we will keep coming back until the death penalty is abolished.

Many people who want the death penalty do so as a matter of revenge. Revenge is never, ever the answer. The answer is love and compassion for all of humanity.

Thanks again for your abolition work.

Peace,
Bill Pelke
President, Journey of Hope…from Violence to Healing

Tenth Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty
October 24, 2009 at 2 PM
Austin, Texas
Texas State Capitol Building South Side (11th and Congress)

This Friday, October 23, 7:00 PM
UT campus, Texas Union building, Sinclair Suite (room 3.128)

Speakers:

Shujaa Graham was exonerated in 1981 from California’s death row. As a prisoner at San Quentin in the 70’s Shujaa was active in the Black Prison movement and in the Black Panther Party. After being framed for jailhouse murder, Shujaa was sent to death row. Since his release from prison, Shujaa has remained a committed fighter against injustice and the death penalty.

Curtis McCarty spent 22 years in prison, 19 of those years on Oklahoma’s death row, for a crime he didn’t commit. He was exonerated in 2007 through the testing of DNA evidence. He has toured and spoken about his case, along with several exonerated prisoners with the Witness to Innocence Project.

Elizabeth Gilbert is a Houston teacher and playwright, who befriended Texas death row prisoner Cameron Todd Willingham and is featured in a New Yorker article by David Grann about the case. She became convinced of his innocence and was able to push for a new arson investigation that exonerated him. However, the State failed to halt his execution in 2004. Further investigations have upheld that he was innocent.

Panel sponsored by the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Texas Moratorium Network, Texas Students Against the Death Penalty, Kids Against the Death Penalty, Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement and the rest of the March to Abolish the Death Penalty Coalition.

This Friday, October 23, 7:00 PM
UT campus, Texas Union building, Sinclair Suite (room 3.128)

Speakers:

Shujaa Graham was exonerated in 1981 from California’s death row. As a prisoner at San Quentin in the 70’s Shujaa was active in the Black Prison movement and in the Black Panther Party. After being framed for jailhouse murder, Shujaa was sent to death row. Since his release from prison, Shujaa has remained a committed fighter against injustice and the death penalty.

Curtis McCarty spent 22 years in prison, 19 of those years on Oklahoma’s death row, for a crime he didn’t commit. He was exonerated in 2007 through the testing of DNA evidence. He has toured and spoken about his case, along with several exonerated prisoners with the Witness to Innocence Project.

Elizabeth Gilbert is a Houston teacher and playwright, who befriended Texas death row prisoner Cameron Todd Willingham and is featured in a New Yorker article by David Grann about the case. She became convinced of his innocence and was able to push for a new arson investigation that exonerated him. However, the State failed to halt his execution in 2004. Further investigations have upheld that he was innocent.

Panel sponsored by the Campaign to End the Death Penalty and the March to Abolish the Death Penalty Coalition.