October 6-7 — Judge Charlie Baird to convene a Court of Inquiry in case of Cameron Todd Willingham to determine if Texas wrongfully convicted and executed an innocent person.

Before October 8 — The three-judge all-Republican review panel is expected to announce its decision in appeal of Judge Sharon Keller, who was given a “Public Warning” by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. Various possible outcomes include dismissal of the finding by the SCJC; allowing Keller to appeal again at a full hearing of all the evidence; or sending the case back to the SCJC for it to reconsider its “Public Warning”.

October 13 — The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in case of Hank Skinner to determine if he may seek testing of DNA evidence through a civil rights lawsuit. Skinner is on death row in Texas. If he is not allowed to test the DNA evidence, then Texas may execute an innocent person.

October 14 — Texas is scheduled to execute Gayland Bradford, who would be the 464th person executed since 1982 and the 225th under current Texas Governor Rick Perry. Bradford may have mental retardation. His IQ was tested as 68 by the Texas Department of Corrections when he was a 17-year-old first offender.

October 19 — Frontline on PBS to air documentary “Death by Fire” about the case of Todd Willingham. Watch it on on PBS on TV or online at the Frontline website. Willingham was executed in 2004 but there is a growing consensus that he was wrongfully convicted and was innocent. Hold a watch gathering in your school or home.

October 21 — Texas is scheduled to execute Larry Wooten, who would be the 465th person executed since 1982 and the 226th under current Texas Governor Rick Perry.

October 30 — 11th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty at the Texas Capitol in Austin starting at 2 PM. Last year’s march was the largest anti-death penalty rally in Texas since 2000. Organized by a statewide coalition of Texas anti-death penalty organizations and other groups. Special guests include innocent, death row exonerees, family members of murder victims, community leaders, family members of people on death row and others.

November 2 — Election for governor of Texas between Republican Rick Perry, who was governor in 2004 when Todd Willingham was wrongfully executed, and Bill White the Democratic former mayor of Houston, as well as Kathie Glass from the Libertarian Party and Deb Shafto from the Green Party.

November 8 — Judge Kevin Fine in Houston will convene a hearing on the constitutionality of the death penalty and whether the fact that innocent people are at risk of execution puts the death penalty in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

The Court of Inquiry convened in response to this petition filed on behalf of the family of Todd Willingham has been scheduled for 1:30 PM on October 6-7, 2010 in the 299th District Court in Austin. 

Petition to Convene a Court of Inquiry and for a Declaration to Remedy Injury to Mr. Willingham’s Reputatio…

From the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

AUSTIN — A Travis County judge today ordered a court of inquiry to determine if Cameron Todd Willingham was wrongfully convicted and executed in the deaths of his three daughters, who perished in a Corsicana house fire in 1991.

Judge Charlie Baird, who also conducted a court of inquiry that led to the exoneration of wrongfully convicted inmate Tim Cole of Fort Worth, told the Star-Telegram that he has decided to move forward with the court of inquiry into the Willingham case after reviewing a petition filed Friday by lawyers representing Willingham’s relatives.

“I have decided that the petition warrants a hearing,” Baird said in a telephone interview. The inquiry will be held in his courtroom on Oct. 6-7, but Baird said it could be extended if necessary.

Willingham was found guilty of deliberating setting the fire that killed his daughters — 2-year-old Amber and 1-year-old twins Karmon and Kameron. The unemployed Corsicana mechanic went to his death in 2004 insisting that he was innocent.

The case became the center of national attention after several fire experts concluded that the arson investigation against Willingham was flawed and based on outmoded techniques. It has also been the focus of a controversial review by the Texas Forensic Science Commission, which opened an inquiry into the arson investigation in 2006.

Baird said he made his decision early this morning after staying up until midnight Sunday reviewing the 55-page petition.

“Obviously the most troubling aspect of this — and it just dwarfs everything else – is whether or not to believe that an innocent person has been executed by the State of Texas,” he said.

The inquiry could lead to Willingham’s posthumous exoneration if the findings warranted, said Baird. He said he has no preconceived view on Willingham’s guilt or innocence but felt that questions raised by Willingham’s case justified further examination.

“I agree with them that they’re entitled to a hearing but I wouldn’t say at any level that he’s innocent,” Baird said. “A lot of this stuff has either been done piecemeal or in secret and this will bring it all to light.”

Baird said he has ordered a subpoena to demand the appearance of the jail trusty who testified that Willingham admitted the crime while he was in jail awaiting trial. He also sent invitations to Gov. Rick Perry’s chief counsel, the Texas Fire Marshal, the Navarro County district attorney and the state prosecuting attorney, but said their appearance wasn’t necessary.

Perry has defended the execution, describing Willingham as a “monster” whose appeals were repeatedly rejected by state and federal courts. Willingham supporters have accused Perry of interfering with the commission’s inquiry by ordering a shakeup of the membership during a crucial phase of the inquiry, but the governor has dismissed those assertions.

Baird said he could make a ruling within two weeks after the court of inquiry concludes it review.

From the Austin American-Statesman:

Sate District Judge Charlie Baird announced today that he will hold a two-day hearing in Travis County next week in the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in 2004 in the 1991 arson murder of his three young daughters in Corsicana.

Lawyers for Willingham’s relatives on Friday filed a lawsuit asking Baird to hold the hearing to determine whether Willingham was wrongly convicted and whether there is probable cause to charge Texas officials with official oppression.

The suit claims that those officials, who were not named, committed that crime by failing to consider before Willingham’s execution that he was convicted on discredited arson science.

Several arson experts in recent years have rejected the science that the investigators who testified at Willingham’s trial used to determine that the fire that killed his daughters was intentionally set. The Texas Forensic Science Commission has been reviewing the science in the case since 2006.

The hearing has been scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 6 and 7.

Baird, right, wrote today in an e-mail to the American-Statesman that he has issued a bench warrant to have Johnny Everett Webb, who testified at Willingham’s 1992 trial, brought to Travis County for the hearing. Webb told a jury during that trial that Willingham, above, confessed to the arson while they were in the same jail.

Baird said that he has appointed a lawyer to represent Webb, who is incarcerated in Navarro County, during the Travis County hearing.

Lawyers for Willingham’s family served their 62-page suit along with the hundreds of copies of exhibits on officials at Gov. Rick Perry’s office, the state fire marshal’s office, the Navarro County district attorney’s office and the office of the state prosecuting attorney, which represents the state in cases at the Court of Criminal Appeals.

Baird wrote in today’s e-mail that he has mailed letters to those parties notifying them of the hearing dates and “invited them to attend if they wanted to present evidence on, for or against the issues raised in the petition.”

Read more about the Willingham family lawyers petition in Travis County here.

Video from Fox 4 in Dallas.