By Matt Kelley

An exhaustive report published this week in the New Yorker shows that Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in Texas in 2004, was innocent. The investigative report by David Grann dismantles every piece of evidence used at trial to convict Willingham of setting the 1992 fire that killed his three young daughters. It also revealed deeper problems in forensic science that still have not been addressed.

The arson investigation that led to Willingham’s conviction was based entirely on myth and conjecture, the report shows, and alleges that Texas authorities were presented similar evidence of Willingham’s innocence before he was executed in 2004. The Texas Forensic Science Commission is reviewing the case, and recently commissioned an independent arson expert to review the evidence. That investigator found that the evidence of arson presented at Willingham’s trial was flatly wrong.

An editorial today in the Philadelphia Inquirer compares Willingham to Troy Davis, who is sitting on Georgia’s death row for a crime he has always said he didn’t commit. Three times Davis has come within hours of execution, only to receive last-minute stays. The U.S. Supreme Court recently ordered a lower court to hold a hearing to review evidence in Davis’ case.

It is terribly disturbing to learn that Willingham was executed despite his innocence, but even more troubling to consider the continued risk of executing an innocent person. Seventeen people have been exonerated through DNA testing after spending time on death row. There are 3,500 people on death row in the U.S., and Troy Davis is not the only one with strong evidence of innocence.

In considering the Willingham and Davis cases side by side, the Philadelphia Inquirer reaches the only possible conclusion:

“The risk of a wrongful execution is simply too great to continue with capital punishment.”

Matt Kelley is the Innocence Project’s Online Communications Manager. He maintains the organization’s website, writes the Innocence Blog and manages all other forms of e-communication. Matt has worked as a blogger, reporter, producer and editor for newspapers, websites and in television and film.