DALLAS (AP) – A nonprofit group on Monday accused the prosecutor in the case of a Texas man executed for the fire deaths of his three daughters of trying to cover up a jailhouse informant’s recantation.
The New York-based Innocence Project, which investigates potential wrongful convictions, said it had filed a state bar grievance against John H. Jackson, a former prosecutor and judge who oversaw the case against Cameron Todd Willingham.
Willingham was executed in 2004 for killing his three daughters in a house fire in Corsicana. The project has long pursued Willingham’s case for evidence suggesting that Texas wrongfully executed him. State officials have maintained that they still believe he was guilty of murder.
A key witness in the case was inmate Johnny Webb, who testified that while in jail awaiting trial, Willingham confessed to Webb that he had killed the girls.
In its latest grievance filing, dated July 25, the Innocence Project reiterated allegations that Jackson lied about getting Webb a lighter sentence on a robbery case. It also accuses Jackson and a local wealthy rancher in Corsicana of working to conceal Webb’s change of heart, which occurred years before Willingham’s execution.