Gov. Rick Perry and the Cameron Todd Willingham Case

Hi Readers,

If you have been following the Texas governor's race at all, I am sure you are aware of the recent controversy that has arisen in the past two weeks among the Rick Perry Campaign.

In 2004, Cameron Todd Willingham was put to death after being convicted of arson that resulted in the death of his three children. However, recent reports from forensic specialists have brought up the possibility that the fire might not have been arson afterall. Of course this raises questions about a faulty investigation, and Gov. Perry is right in the spotlight of it all.

On their Web site, the Hutchison campaign draws attention to suspicious comments, actions and situations that Perry has found himself in regarding the controversy. One thing in particular that the media is calling attention to is the fact that Perry replaced members on the Texas Forensic Science Comission right before the new investigation on the case was supposed to begin.

In my last blog, I mentioned that during his radio interview with Hugh Hewit, Gov. Perry himself, accused Sen. Hutchison of not being completely conservative after she supported President Obama's bailout plan earlier this year. Gov. Perry claimed this was going to be a race focused on proving who the more "conservative" candidate was.

Since this controversy has come up with Gov. Perry, other candidates have taken the chance to use it against him on the campaign front, including future governor hopeful, Debra Medina.

Medina, another Republican candidate for governor, is taking a stab at Perry claiming that after the Willingham case, he is not as pro-life and "conservative" as he claims to be either. In her opposite-editorial sent to chron.com, she points out different situations in which she feels Gov. Perry has failed to prove his conservatism and those in which he has simply failed altogether during his term as Texas Governor.

I think Debra said it best in her opposite-editorial when she stated:

"The question, Governor Perry, is NOT whether or not Cameron Todd Willingham was a "bad" man. The question sir is whether or not justice was served? Was he guilty of the crime that resulted in his execution? You are not jury and judge! You are, for the moment, our governor whose job it is to see that our laws are faithfully executed."

In politics, you can never be too sure about who to believe. This is why we, as citizens, must stay informed and try our best to follow more than one candidate, so that we can hear every side of a story and so we may eventually come to our own conclusions.