Executing an Innocent Man and Trying to Hide It

UPDATE: Texas tried to execute another innocent man. The prosecutor withheld the statement of the real killer that he acted alone, and allowed his perjured testimony at trial. Read Texas Monthly, Innocence Lost.

Watch PBS Frontline, Death by Fire.

The worst part is that the Texas Governor, Rick Perry, rushed to have the man executed for political reasons, his reelection.

But "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."

Just before a critical report was to be released, which would have raised serious concerns that an innocent man was executed, Perry fired three members of the commission and installed a political ally as the new chairman.

The report has never been released.