Todd Willingham: Trial by Fire
Trial by Character
On December 23rd of 1991, a horrible tragedy occurred. A small house in Corsicana, Texas caught fire and three young children perished inside while the father, Todd Willingham who was asleep when the fire began, made it out alive. Willingham was convicted for murder by arson and later executed in February of 2004. Those are the facts but the question remains, did Texas execute an innocent man? I believe so. In this essay I will state my reasons for believing Todd Willingham was innocent at the time of his execution and give the reasons the opposition found him to be guilty. Todd Willingham was executed on the grounds that he committed arson. However, many aspects of the arson report have since been proved wrong such as the pour patterns found on the floor in the children’s room, hallway, and doorways indicating an ignition fluid. Modern science proves that the presence of pour patterns on the floor, in this case around the posts of the children’s bed, are not necessarily indicators of arson. Pour patterns have also been seen in fully developed accidental fires caused by radiant heating, melted plastics, or when the fire goes through flashover: the rapid spreading of fire through the air due to intense heat. (Beyler Report 1) It is likely that melting plastic, not lighter fluid sprayed by Willingham created the pour patterns created around the bottom of the bed. Without conducting a controlled experiment using a fire created with accelerant and a fire created without accelerant to show the difference in pour patterns, fire investigators could not be sure that an ignition fluid was actually used. Another misconception in the Willingham case is the temperature at which the fire burned being much significantly higher than normal, the fire being much more intense. This misconception contradicts many issues in modern fire science. It is true that accelerants can increase the temperature of a fire but those temperatures are also attainable in
On December 23rd of 1991, a horrible tragedy occurred. A small house in Corsicana, Texas caught fire and three young children perished inside while the father, Todd Willingham who was asleep when the fire began, made it out alive. Willingham was convicted for murder by arson and later executed in February of 2004. Those are the facts but the question remains, did Texas execute an innocent man? I believe so. In this essay I will state my reasons for believing Todd Willingham was innocent at the time of his execution and give the reasons the opposition found him to be guilty. Todd Willingham was executed on the grounds that he committed arson. However, many aspects of the arson report have since been proved wrong such as the pour patterns found on the floor in the children’s room, hallway, and doorways indicating an ignition fluid. Modern science proves that the presence of pour patterns on the floor, in this case around the posts of the children’s bed, are not necessarily indicators of arson. Pour patterns have also been seen in fully developed accidental fires caused by radiant heating, melted plastics, or when the fire goes through flashover: the rapid spreading of fire through the air due to intense heat. (Beyler Report 1) It is likely that melting plastic, not lighter fluid sprayed by Willingham created the pour patterns created around the bottom of the bed. Without conducting a controlled experiment using a fire created with accelerant and a fire created without accelerant to show the difference in pour patterns, fire investigators could not be sure that an ignition fluid was actually used. Another misconception in the Willingham case is the temperature at which the fire burned being much significantly higher than normal, the fire being much more intense. This misconception contradicts many issues in modern fire science. It is true that accelerants can increase the temperature of a fire but those temperatures are also attainable in