Iraan News

Ernest Willis has one vice left: smoking. He smokes in his purple Lincoln Town Car, driving around Midland.

As a key witness in the capital murder trial of Cameron Todd Willingham, then-Deputy State Fire Marshal Manuel Vasquez testified that the fire that killed the defendant's three daughters was "a crime of arson." "In your opinion, could this fire have been started accidentally?" Vasquez was asked.

Odessa American Iraan's Jose Chavez, center, runs outside against the defense of Stanton's Adam Montez and Caleb Ramsey Friday, Oct.

Arson investigators in Texas have relied on old wives' tales and junk science to send men to prison, and perhaps even the death chamber, top experts on fire behavior say.

A blistering report issued last week should be required reading for anyone who discounts the possibility that the state's death chamber has taken an innocent life.

In a withering critique, a nationally known fire scientist has told a state commission on forensics that Texas fire investigators had no basis to rule that a deadly house fire was arson - a finding that led to the murder conviction and execution of Cameron Todd Willingham.