Original subtitles

Tonight on Front Line,

the story of a fire.

>> Fellow girls cried, "Daddy, daddy." Oh,

and oh, when I woke up, the whole house

was in smoke.

>> A man accused.

>> He was guilty.

He really set that fire and killed those

kids.

>> An execution.

>> It's really a shame we couldn't put him

to death three times since he took three

lives.

and a question of guilt.

>> There is not one iota of evidence that

the fire was arson.

>> That sparked a national debate. The

state of Texas executed a man for a

crime that they couldn't prove was

really a crime. Tonight on Front Line,

death by fire.

It's small town America. It's football

games on Friday nights.

>> Everybody gets along. Everybody knows

everybody.

This is a a nice country community.

>> Corsacana is a wonderful place to live,

but every town has their bad people in

it and bad things happen in every town.

So, we're no different than anybody

else.

It was the 23rd of December. The Prices

Right was on. And that's what I was

watching.

Two or three of the girls went out on

the back patio and come running in the

house and and said, "Mama, I think

Sheila's house is on fire."

I run to the front and out the door and

that's when I seen Todd at his front

door and he started screaming, "My

babies. Oh, my babies. My babies are

burning."

Their neighbor, 23-year-old Cameron Todd

Willingham, was in the house with his

three children when the fire started.

>> The call came across the scanner. There

was a a house fire with possibly people

trapped in it.

>> I remember my mom screaming, "Go back

in. Go go go try to get the babies."

>> And I grabbed him. I said, "Is there

anybody in the house?" He said, "Yes, my

my twins are in that room right there."

Well, I went in the front door and I

went to the left and that's as far as I

could get. It was completely engulfed in

fire.

I pulled up on the scene. U got out

immediately started stretching the fire

line and I made entry into the house

through the front windows u knocking the

fire down as I went.

>> The first fire came out. when he was

cradling a small child uh in his arms.

He began to drop to one knee and as he

began to drop to one knee uh the little

girl's arm just just fell fell limp

right at her side. U just you know just

like a little ragd doll.

I went back to the fire room looking for

the children at that time. Chief Fog was

in there and he had already located the

children but they were both dead.

Firefighters tried to save 2-year-old

Amber, but she died shortly after

reaching the hospital.

All three children, Amber, Carmen, and

Cameron, were dead.

Their mother, Stacy, was Christmas

shopping at a thrift store when the

police told her.

>> In the blackened ugliness, there are

remnants of a fire. There are remnants

of Christmas as well. A melted Christmas

tree with a few ornaments. A teddy bear

still waiting for Christmas morning. And

there are two parents who want this

Christmas to go away.

>> My little girl was crying. Daddy, daddy.

Oh, when I woke up, the whole house was

in smoke.

>> Todd Willingham was virtually unharmed.

>> He did have some minor burns on on his

shoulder and his hair was singed.

To me, it just was not that the injuries

were not consistent of being in a

burning house that was so supposedly

burning so bad that that he had to get

out and couldn't find his kids.

>> Around town in Corsacana, Texas,

Willingham's lack of serious injuries

and a night of partying after the fire

fueled rumors.

Immediately after the children were

killed in the fire, he was seen at uh a

local bar essentially uh exhibiting

behavior that was completely

inconsistent with a person who had lost

his three children.

When the Willingham children died,

several of us thought it would be a good

idea if we did a benefit uh dart

tournament to raise funds to help with

their burial. Todd and Stacy Willingham

showed up the night that we had the

tournament.

Todd got too involved

in the fun.

>> He was heard to brag to others that he

wouldn't have anything to worry about

now because the money would start

rolling in uh because people would feel

sorry for him.

>> He showed a great interest in a in a new

pair of darts. That really kind of

shocked me. I thought, well, here, you

know, I'm really not going to let you

give me back the money that I just gave

you for a new pair of darts. So, I just

gave them to him so that he wouldn't

lose the money that I wanted him to

spend on those funerals.

>> The police launched an investigation.

Todd Willingham was the primary suspect.

You got to count his actions before and

after. You got to count his actions

during the fire and things like that.

That makes the whole story, not just one

little segment of it. It's it's every

bit of the story.

>> The police had been to Willingham's

house before.

>> We'd been over to Todd's house where he

had uh got physical with his wife Stacy

on a couple occasions.

He was a very mean man.

He beat on uh Stacy all the time.

I mean, you know, I mean, this was like

every day.

They could hear the impact of him

hitting his wife and his wife hitting

the floor, his statements to her that

were could be overheard throughout the

neighborhood. Don't get up, or

I'll hit you again.

I figured he would kill Stacy. You know,

that's how bad it was. You know,

something terrible is going to happen.

He will eventually kill her.

Witnesses who had been at the fire also

told police that Willingham did nothing

to rescue his children.

>> Once he got outside, I cannot find

anybody who actually said he made an

attempt to get back in to save his kids.

He didn't try to go back in. Not one

time.

>> He wasn't attempting to go back in.

He wasn't

attempting to do anything.

Putting that whole picture together made

me believe that he was guilty of

homicide, that he killed his three

little girls.

And my job was to find how them little

girls died. And if it is an act, a

criminal act, it's my job to to build a

case so he can be prosecuted for his

act.

>> As soon as the fire was out, the search

for the cause of the blaze began.

>> 1213

West 11. I'm Doug Fog, assistant fire

chief. This will be the interior.

Investigators came to believe that this

was a crime scene.

>> You start by eliminating accidental

causes.

We go back toward the breaker boxes. We

see our wiring again.

No evidence of shortening.

When you get through with your

accidental causes,

what's left?

They figured the fire had started on the

floor.

They were looking for evidence that

something flammable might have been

poured there.

>> Unusual to a normal fire burn

in the kids children's room there. There

were uh signs of what we thought was an

accelerant poured on the floor. Usually

accelerants will leak through the cracks

of the floors and burn underneath and

fire burns up.

>> Then at the door to the porch,

investigators found what they were

looking for.

>> There was an unusual burn pattern on the

aluminum threshold plate which indicates

that something had been introduced,

poured down, leaked through. We took a

sample of that and that came back uh as

a positive sample for charcoal lighter

fluid.

And I'm thinking that's the first time I

called it arson.

>> The official state report on the fire

listed 20 indicators of arson.

Investigators were now convinced.

This concludes this tape

of 1213

West 11.

The police called in Todd Willingham.

My dad told him to go down there and

give a statement.

And when he went and give a statement,

he talks too much.

And

I don't know what all he said, but

whatever he said that started it.

Just his whole demeanor

to me

looked like it he just wanted to tell a

story.

More like it was more like he was

bragging about it than, you know, being

remorseful.

He was more like he was proud of his

actions that he claimed he tried to do

to save his kids and stuff.

Willingham said he heard the oldest one

calling daddy and went into the bedroom

and crawled around on the floor because

the smoke was so thick and stuff looking

for the the babies, but he was unable to

find them.

>> But Officer Hensley wasn't buying the

story.

After a while in this business, you you

get to to judge people by their actions

and their looks, you know, and you're

not 100% right, but usually it's it's a

good thing to go on.

Just looking at his eyes,

I didn't see any type of remorse or

sympathy in him.

>> And Willingham's story didn't seem to

square up with his lack of injuries. He

was barefoot when he come out and he had

no uh burns on his feet, but we could

see where there was burns in the hallway

and we can't figure out how he got out

without burning his feet.

>> Detectives pushed Willingham to confess.

They even used pictures of his dead

children.

>> Todd didn't show any remorse through the

interview until I actually showed him

the pictures of his children.

And at that time he started crying.

You know, I don't think he was sad so

much that he killed the kids as much as

that it's coming to light that, you

know, he's a suspect in it.

They charged him with murder. Bail was

set at a million dollars.

They offered him a deal. confess and

avoid the death penalty.

His courtappointed attorney, David

Martin, urged him to take the plea.

If all the evidence is overwhelming that

the person is guilty of the crime

charged and the chances of introducing

reasonable doubt are slim to none in

your professional opinion. Of course,

you'd rather have him accept a life

sentence and save his life.

>> Despite the pressure, Willingham refused

to plead guilty. He'd take his chances

in front of a jury.

>> He wouldn't plead guilty. He was very

adamant.

He said they could kill him right then

and there.

>> The case went to trial in August of

1992

The prosecution began with a surprising

witness,

>> a jailhouse informant.

>> There was the testimony of Johnny Webb,

who had been incarcerated at the same

time as Willingham, and who testified

that Willingham had confessed. And he

said, "Well, you know, I can't deal with

what I've done."

And I said, "What are you talking

about?"

And that's when he confessed to what he

had done.

And Webb told prosecutors something

else.

>> Willingham admitted to him that he

spread the accelerant on the floor in

the children's room in sort of a

pentagram or a star-shaped pattern.

>> A pentagram. To the prosecutor, it was a

symbol for Satan worship. And he offered

posters found in Willingham's room as

proof.

It was a poster of an iron bar being

driven through a person's head and there

was some indication that

it was some sort of a Satanist image.

>> And prosecutors called Willingham's wife

Stacy who reluctantly testified about

the abuse.

Stacy admitted that he he abused her and

beat on her and she stayed hoping that

it would it would change, but it never

did.

You got three little girls lives

involved. They showed these kids to the

jury

and you hear his past.

You see that and the judge tells them to

do what they need to be doing.

I mean, I don't know how more how much

more you could stack it against him. Do

you?

>> There's plenty of people walking around

in Corsana, Texas, that if that happened

to them today, they would get the

benefit of the doubt because they had

treated their family in a respectful

manner and taken care of them. Okay.

Todd Willingham had not treated his

family in a respected manner and he

didn't get the benefit of the doubt that

some people would have.

The trial lasted three days.

It only took an hour for the jury to

find Willingham guilty. He was sentenced

to death.

>> You know, I've been criticized by some

because I've said that of course I

thought he was guilty. Uh how stupid

would you be? How incompetent would you

be as a defense attorney if you just

went in and swallowed the story the

defendant gave you? The real fact of the

matter is that Willingham was guilty. He

wasn't innocent. He really set that fire

and killed those kids.

>> I I feel like justice was served for

those three little girls. It was a jury

of 12 people of this community who

determined that with all the evidence

presented to him that he was guilty. And

that's the way the system works.

Willingham was taken to the Texas State

Prison at Huntsville to await his

execution.

He said the worst thing in the world uh

is to be accused of what he was accused

of and to be found guilty of that and

then have to go to death row and live

with that.

>> When he was in the on death row, they

would step on his heels, you know, and

trip him and call him baby killer and

everything else, you know.

Willingham sat on death row for seven

years.

His appeals were going nowhere. There

was little interest in his case.

Then inmate number 999041

received a letter.

It was from 47year-old Elizabeth

Gilbert.

>> Someone asked me if I would like to ride

a man on death row, be a pen pal. And I

was like, sure. I volunteered.

I had been in a place in my life where

relationship had ended. My parents were

getting elderly. I was kind of a drift.

The name that was given to me just

randomly was Todd Willingham.

>> Willingham eagerly wrote back.

>> And I was just really struck by the

letter from Todd. It was very polite. It

was very kind.

>> Gilbert wanted to know more about

Willingham. She decided to meet him face

to face.

I walked in expecting to see a black

man, you know, the whole stereotype. And

here was this, you know, handsome young

white man who was very polite and very

genial.

>> Willingham told her his version of what

happened at the fire.

>> The story he told me was, you know, this

he woke up to a fire. you know, he ran

out of the house, couldn't get back in

to save his children.

There's a writer in me that was like,

"This is a a great story."

Gilbert decided to find out for herself

who Todd Willingham really was.

His story began in Ardmore, Oklahoma.

Todd's mother had several children by

different fathers and Todd had been

abandoned in California.

>> Todd's father, Jean, had remarried. His

wife, Eugina, raised Todd as her own.

>> We got Todd when he was 13 months old. I

thought maybe he might be anxious and

cry, but he just crawled up in my lap

and that was it.

He uh acted like he'd always lived

there.

He had a way of telling you how he felt.

He never came into a room. Why? He

didn't hug my neck.

>> It was a different story with Todd's

father.

>> My husband always said that I wasn't

hard enough on him. So that had made him

have to be doubly hard.

>> He's the type of guy that uh just that

you can't do anything right and

everything's wrong.

Let's say that he has a hammer there and

you borrow it and you put it back.

That's good, but it's not good enough if

it's not spacing the same way.

His father was very strict and Todd knew

this, but it didn't stop him from doing

some things that he got in trouble for.

>> Todd struggled in school,

and Gilbert was surprised to learn that

by the sixth grade, he was already using

drugs. He liked to inhale the aerosol

from spray paint cans.

I think he started huffing pain when he

was 11 and started on drugs and 11,

>> you know, I'd see signs and I'd ask him

and he'd blame it on other kids. You

know, he did have a hard time finally

admitting to me that it was him, that he

was doing it. Yeah. And he told me that

was the the sweetest high he ever

experienced in his life.

>> His mind kind of stayed there. To me,

his his thinking ability

always stayed

11, 12, 13 long in there.

>> During his trial, prosecutors claimed

that as Willingham got older, he began

to commit increasingly violent crimes.

>> He would have him a gang.

He would recruit younger younger kids

that he could intimidate and send them

out to pull the burglaries and bring the

loot back to him and then he would pay

them off in drugs.

>> And jurors heard that Willingham was a

violent sociopath.

>> He was an individual with essentially no

redeeming values. This was his crowning

achievement as a psychopath of the

murder of his three children.

In fact, psychiatrist Dr. James

Griggsson testified Willingham was a

severe sociopath.

Griggsson had testified in more than 100

death penalty cases, earning the

nickname Dr. Death.

>> He's hired to come in and make sure that

they get the death penalty by assuring

the the jury that, you know, this person

would be just a

has to be removed from society.

Gilbert discovered that Griggsson had

never met Willingham.

But those who actually knew Todd said he

was hardly a violent criminal.

>> I I just didn't see that person. That

that's not the Todd that I knew.

Todd had been arrested for tampering

with an automobile. In other words, he

had opened the door of a vehicle and not

gotten any further. By the time he

opened the door, the police were already

on site.

I put him in jail, I think, on his 18th

birthday because he had screwed up

again. And I said, "I have tried to save

your ass, and now I'm going to put your

ass in jail. So, you can't enjoy your

18th birthday. You're going to go to

jail for the weekend or whatever it was.

I don't remember the details."

He wasn't a sociopath. He wasn't a

psychopath. He did stupid crap like

steal bikes.

And in Todd's teenage love of heavy

metal music, Gilbert found an

explanation for those satanic posters.

They were from the rock bands Led

Zeppelin and Iron Maiden.

>> We had posters of Iron Maiden hanging in

our house, too. My ex-husband probably

still has his Iron Maiden posters, you

know, at 40. He uh they were Iron Maiden

fans.

So what

>> what they looked at were posters on the

wall which are the typical posters that

young men listen to the heavy metal that

he smoked pot you know that he had this

you know horrible past of crime which

turned out to be shoplifting you know in

a bicycle.

Gilbert followed Todd's trail from

Oklahoma to Texas.

He'd moved to Corsacana to be with his

girlfriend Stacy.

They'd met while she was still in high

school and before long had three

children under the age of two.

He changed their diapers and took care

of them and did everything that they

needed and he made them a lot of

macaroni and cheese. He did a lot of

cooking for them.

>> Stacy wound up waitressing in her

brother's bar while Todd stayed home

with the kids.

>> I know they struggled that year trying

to take care of three babies and it was

very hard, you know. Uh, I can't

imagine.

>> I'd say to the girls, he was a real good

dad, but as far as going out and

providing a nice home, nice job for the

family, and being a family provider like

you're supposed to.

I'd say he didn't.

>> Todd and Stacy's relationship

deteriorated into abuse.

When you have three little kids and

you're stuck in the house all the time

together and your friends are out doing

stuff. I think that was part of Todd and

Stacy's problem. You know, three little

kids and and you're poor

and you get bored and start picking at

each other.

>> I never saw Stacy with black eyes.

I did see Todd with bite marks on his

arm.

I know they had fights. I know they

didn't get along. I talked to both of

them about it. I really talked to Todd

about it and he said, "I, mom, I had to

take up for myself."

>> Nevertheless, only 3 months before the

fire, Todd and Stacy decided to get

married.

>> He told me, he said, "I'm going to try

to do what's right. I'm going to try to

make this work, and we're going to get

married." and he said, "I know it's

going to be hard, but that's what I

should do."

>> Todd would have to change his ways. He

had a reputation as a ladies man.

>> Stacy wasn't the only girl in his life.

I'm sorry to say. Todd acted like he

really cared for Stacy,

but he acted like he cared for other

girls, too.

>> There was one woman in particular

She was an older woman that I didn't

approve of at all.

She was a neighbor

that lived across the street and had

children his age.

>> When he married Stacy, Todd ended the

relationship.

When he come and told me that he had

married Stacy,

it

it broke my heart because I knew I was

losing

at that time the love of my life,

my soulmate.

And but I knew why he was doing it.

And I could not ask him to walk away

from his kids

because he couldn't do it. I wouldn't do

that to him cuz I knew how much he loved

him.

>> He had other choices,

but he he chose his children.

>> After the fire, Stacy stood by Todd,

insisting he was innocent.

But when he was sent to prison, she

started a new life.

>> After the conviction and after Todd was

on death row, Stacy decided to get a

divorce.

She didn't visit him on death row.

>> Elizabeth Gilbert found Stacy in

Corsacana.

>> Oh, they kept saying um that the fire

>> I told her I was a writer. I was from

Houston. I interviewed her. I taped her

and she was u very seemed kind of

reserved, nervous, just a person who had

a lot of tragedy in her life.

>> He used to beat me real bad. He just had

a temper, I guess. I mean, you and I was

stupid for putting up with it. But the

first time he ever hit me,

>> Todd had begged Stacy to visit him,

>> but she refused

>> because I was at first I I didn't go in

there when they, you know, convicted

him. I didn't want to be in there, you

know. I was tired of it. We were just,

you know, threatening each other,

arguing back and forth through the riot,

and I just filed for a divorce.

>> Nevertheless, Stacy said she didn't

believe Todd was capable of killing the

children.

He he was mean to me, but I always said,

you know, he may beat me, he may kill

me, but he would never get to the kids.

And I always knew that, you know, they

were his kids. He never hurt the kids,

you know. I mean, but me, that was a

whole different story.

>> She really convinced me that she felt

that an injustice had been done. My

sense in the interview was like she she

left me with the opinion that Todd was

innocent, you know, because she didn't

feel he had done that. She didn't feel

he was capable of doing that.

Now, Gilbert wanted to sort out the

other evidence.

>> We went up to Austin and got the the

records of the trial.

I'm in, you know, copying these records.

I'm reading these reports.

She dug into the story of that jailhouse

informant.

>> A red flag to me was Johnny Webb. The

idea that a prisoner would confess to a

complete stranger,

you know, that he had committed a crime

just didn't I just didn't buy that.

>> Webb had a reputation as a troubled

young man with a long history of felony

arrests.

We decided to use his testimony even

though his credibility was subject to

attack. We felt that he had no real

reason uh to lie about this particular

uh

what we'd term a jailhouse confession.

>> Gilbert decided to talk to Web in

person.

She found him serving 15 years. He stood

by his story.

He was a very nervous young man.

I wouldn't have had I been sitting, you

know, on the jury, I couldn't have

bought his testimony.

Later, her suspicions about Webb were

confirmed when he sent this letter to

prosecutors,

recanting his testimony and declaring

Willingham's innocence.

And then he changed that story,

recanting the recantation.

And now he doesn't remember any of it.

>> I don't remember. Maybe I did. Maybe

it's cuz whatever thing I was going

through, I told him I was going to

recant if uh something doesn't help me

because uh was trying to kill me. You

know what I'm saying? Something to put

some pressure on somebody to do

something to get me out of where I was

at.

>> As Willingham's execution date neared,

there were other problems Gilbert could

not overcome.

She learned Willingham had lied to

investigators about his attempts to

rescue the children.

>> I think the big secret that he was

carrying was the guilt. In his mind, he

couldn't acknowledge that he didn't, you

know, try and save his children. So, he

concocted the story that he, you know,

tried to go in and find the babies and

couldn't.

>> And he said, "What I'm guilty of is

being a coward."

He said, "I should have died in the

house with my kids."

But he said, "It doesn't matter what

people say.

You can't let yourself catch on fire

without trying to get away." And you can

sit and say, "Every day, I would burn up

before I let my kids die in a fire."

He said, "It's not humanly possible."

And the biggest challenge remained that

evidence of arson.

Gilbert had never been able to get an

arson expert to examine the state's

findings.

And then just 3 months before the

execution, Gilbert was in an automobile

accident.

I remember flying forward and I heard

someone scream in the back seat and I'm

all by myself, but it was me screaming

in the back seat, but it came from

behind me.

I remember the doctor coming to me and

saying, "Well, it's uh confirmed your

neck is broken. You may be like this for

the rest of your life."

>> Paralyzed, Gilbert could no longer visit

Willingham.

you know, it was impossible for me to

go. I was incapable of that sort of

travel, you know, sitting in a chair

that long, driving to Huntsville, and it

just wouldn't have happened.

>> Gilbert's investigation was over.

>> Back under the windows,

the low burn concrete. In the 12 years

since Willingham's conviction, one fact

had remained unquestioned. The fire was

an arson.

>> Burn patterns unusual to a normal fire

burn.

>> But during those years, there had been a

dramatic change in the science of arson

investigation.

>> The fire investigation community largely

consists of people who are firemen.

They're not scientists.

They don't have any formal scientific

training. Extinguishing a fire and

investigating a fire involve two

different skill sets and two different

mindsets.

John Lentini is at the top of his field.

One of a small group who reinvented the

science of arson detection.

So many determinations were based on

hunches and feelings.

And and these guys, they talk about, oh,

you got to get in there and feel the

beast. Uh oh, it I I'm just embarrassed

for the profession that this is the way

people evaluate physical evidence.

>> The change in arson science began when

scientists set their own fires and

studied how they burned.

>> That was the first time science was ever

really introduced into the mainstream of

fire investigation.

>> Like Lentini, Dr. Gerald Hurst was one

of the new fire scientists.

>> Gerald Hurst is a chemist extraordinaire

with a PhD from Cambridge University.

>> He's the idiosyncratic godfather of

modern art and science. He's like this

mad scientist

who's not mad at all.

>> For years, Willingham's supporters had

tried to enlist Hurst's help. They

finally gave him the state's arson

report only weeks before the scheduled

execution.

Taking a look at the photographs and

video and testimony and fire

investigation report, it became apparent

that we were dealing with a fire which

had gone to flashover.

>> Flashover, the instant ignition of all

combustible material in a room.

A flashover had left natural patterns on

the floor that all post flashover fires

tend to leave behind and these had been

misidentified

as poor patterns and thus the fire had

been labeled an arson.

>> Hurst reviewed the report line by line.

>> All right, here's your first bit of

so-called arson evidence. This was

typically interpreted in the old days as

a pour pattern. In other words, someone

poured gasoline or some other accelerant

down the hallway out the front door and

then ignited it. The prosecutor in this

case literally believed

that the burn patterns on the floor were

in the shape of a pentagram, like some

satanic ritual.

When you actually look at the burn

pattern that they drew and then you look

at where the windows are, windows

furnish ventilation to a fire and all

they were looking at is what we call

ventilation patterns.

>> The original arson investigators had

testified that there was evidence of a

liquid accelerant on the threshold of

the porch door.

A sample of wood debris from the base of

the front porch was analyzed and the

results were positive for a combustible

liquid accelerant dash kerosene. Well,

that's quite understandable because the

porch also had a barbecue on it and of

course there would be charcoal lighter

fluid there if there was a can of

charcoal lighter fluid on the porch.

>> Hurst also addressed Willingham's lack

of injuries.

>> The question has been asked,

why were Todd Willingham's feet not

burned? And the answer to that question

is quite simple.

Because if no accelerant was poured on

the floor, the floor would have been

relatively cool until shortly after

flashover occurred in the bedroom. The

last part of him that would have gotten

any burn would have been his feet.

and Hurst concluded the original

investigators had not eliminated

accidental causes.

>> There had to be at least one electrical

short in that room. And since it was

surface wiring, it would have been

relative child's play to simply trace

it. Get a step ladder and trace it and

go over it inch by inch until you until

you locate the fault. That in and of

itself is enough to toss the case out

for arson.

>> Hurst had come to believe Todd

Willingham was not guilty.

>> Todd Willingham's case falls into that

category where there is not one iota of

evidence that the fire was arson. Not

not one iota.

Hurst completed his report on February

13th, 2004, only 4 days before the

scheduled execution.

>> You know, all hope was lost and we now

have the answer. Getting the news from

Dr. Hurst was I mean, it was it was

definitely a high.

>> Willingham's attorney filed a series of

emergency last minute appeals. I thought

that somebody would would at least say,

"Let's stop and uh you know, let's at

least hold on and let's take a look at

it." I mean, we were talking about

somebody that was convicted of something

that wasn't a crime.

>> While Willingham waited for the courts

to decide,

he received shocking news. Stacy had

told reporters that she now believed he

had murdered their children.

She had told me that she had uh changed

her mind and felt that Todd was guilty.

>> Stacy talked to Todd's private

investigator, Tina Church,

>> and she had indicated that she had read

the entire trial record in one day. And

I kept trying to tell her, well, we have

new evidence. You know, how would that

make you feel to know that your former

husband, the father of your children, is

going to be executed for something he

possibly didn't do?

And she just

really had convinced herself by this

point he was guilty.

>> It all started a few weeks before at a

contentious meeting between Todd and

Stacy.

For the first time in 12 years, she

visited Todd in prison. He asked her not

to come to the execution and he had one

last request.

He asked her if he could be buried by

the children and she refused.

It seems like there was just a lot of um

hate that came out in that interview.

Then only one day before the execution,

prosecutors filed a stunning document

with the courts.

An affidavit signed by Stacy's brother

claiming that according to Stacy,

Willingham had allegedly confessed

during that final meeting at the prison.

It outraged Willingham. He denied it and

prepared to die.

He said, "Because they'll kill me and

I'll go to heaven with my kids because I

don't want to live this life without

them."

He said, "God knows.

God knows I didn't do this and that's

what matters."

On February 17th, the day of the

execution, all of Willingham's final

appeals failed.

Despite the Hurst report, the Texas

courts and the United States Supreme

Court refused to delay the execution.

>> It was just, you know, the train had

left the station and nobody was going to

stop it.

>> And Texas Governor Rick Perry would not

use his authority to delay the execution

for 30 days.

In Texas, you do not get elected by

granting stays of execution

to people like Cameron Todd Willingham.

You do not show any kind of mercy to

criminals. You are hard on criminals and

that gets you elected in this state.

>> I was given the duty or task to call Mr.

and Mrs. Willingham. And it was one of

the most

really horrifying experiences that I

ever had to go through to tell a parents

that their son, even though had been

proven innocent, was going to die.

At 6:00, Cameron Todd Willingham was

told that his time was up.

when he was asked by the warden if he

had anything to say. Then he went into

the statement where that he said he had

been uh wrongly convicted and that he

was innocent.

>> At some point he looked over and into

the state's witness room. He noticed

Stacy.

>> She walked up to the window and he said,

"You bitch."

I believe that he felt in his heart that

she had lied

and her lie

had cost, you know, helped cost him his

life.

>> Not only did he tell his wife that he

hoped she would rot in hell, he said he

hoped that she would rot in hell.

I had heard a lot of things

over covering hundreds of these

executions in Texas over the years. I'd

never run into that.

Then the drugs began to be administered

and

within, you know, within a few moments

he'd been he was unconscious and then a

few moments later was pronounced dead.

>> They told us that we could go to the

funeral home. when the state turned his

body over to the funeral home and touch

him while he was still warm.

So that's what we did.

And after I knew it was over, I went

home to my kids

and never been so glad to see him in my

life.

And I knew Todd was with his,

you know, he finally went home to his

Did the state which executes more

convicts than any other kill an innocent

man?

>> Texas execute an innocent man.

>> Explosive new charges over the execution

of a man who at least half a dozen

forensic experts now believe was

innocent.

>> In death, questions about Willingham's

innocence would not go away.

By 2008, the controversy had ended up in

a small state agency.

The Texas Forensic Science Commission

was designed to go in and figure out

what happened and figure out how to keep

it from happening again.

>> We decided that we needed to hire an

expert who in the area of fire science

to look at all of the data we could get

pulled together and give us a report.

>> The commission hired fire scientist Dr.

Craig Ber to investigate the Willingham

case.

Ber agreed with other experts that there

was no evidence of arson.

>> The biler report is point forpoint a

confirmation of the the original Hurst

report that all 20 of the indicators

were wrong.

>> To the top fire scientists in the

country, the implications were clear.

>> The state of Texas executed a man for a

crime that they couldn't prove was

really a crime. And the evidence says

this is an accidental fire.

And if it was an accidental fire, it

doesn't matter how many posters of Iron

Maiden Cameron Todd Willingham had on

his wall or Led Zeppelin or or whether

he uh like to play darts or drink beer

or whether he smacked his wife around.

Um it only matters that the fire was not

really a set fire.

>> Texas Governor Rick Perry was running

for reelection.

I knew from the beginning that it could

be controversial simply because we had a

person who had been executed and uh the

science used in his case might be

questionable and the implications are

obvious. It doesn't take long to connect

the dots there.

>> Just before the boiler report was to be

presented, the governor fired the

commission's chairman.

Around 4:0 or 5:00 p.m., I received a

call from Doris Scott of the governor's

office. She said, "I just wanted to let

you know that the governor thanks you

for your service on the commission."

And I said, "Okay, well, um, thank you

for calling."

This is a guy on his on on in the in the

death chamber. At his last breath, he

spews an obscinity laced triad against

his wife. That's the person that we're

talking about here. and getting all tied

up in the process here is uh frankly a a

a deflection of what people across this

state and this country need to be

looking at. This was a bad man.

>> In all, Perry fired three members of the

commission,

>> then installed a political ally,

prosecutor John Bradley, as the new

chairman.

It wasn't until Rick Perry stepped in

and replaced three members of the

commission and within days the story had

grown nationwide that that it got to be

a big story.

>> The new commission's investigation

continues.

>> Willingham's case is now at the heart of

the national debate about the death

penalty.

>> Thank you for making this stay.

>> Well, I think the implications for

capital punishment are there. Um, but

the implications for non- capital cases

are there too. And that is if we make a

mistake,

are we going to learn from it or are we

going to try to sweep it under the rug

and act like um nothing

happened? I can guarantee you we've got

at least a couple of hundred people in

prison in this state alone for

accidental fires and we need to get them

out.

But in Corsacana, they made up their

minds a long time ago.

I believe that Todd Willingham got

exactly what he deserved the day they

put him to death. And I don't believe

that he didn't get a fair trial in this

town. And I don't

it's it's really a shame we couldn't put

him to death three times since he took

three lives.

>> Fire burn.

>> And the original arson investigators

still insist Willingham set the fire.

I don't care how many degrees you may

have, how many books you may have

written.

Uh, this was a set fire.

We had a jury of 12 people

that convicted a man who was later

executed.

Was Mr. Willingham innocent?

In my opinion,

he was guilty as the day he was born.

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