Listen Live
Donate
 on air
Schedule

KCRW

Read & Explore

  • News
  • Entertainment
  • Food
  • Culture
  • Events

Listen

  • Live Radio
  • Music
  • Podcasts
  • Full Schedule

Information

  • About
  • Careers
  • Help / FAQ
  • Newsletters
  • Contact

Support

  • Become a Member
  • Become a VIP
  • Ways to Give
  • Shop
  • Member Perks

Become a Member

Donate to KCRW to support this cultural hub for music discovery, in-depth journalism, community storytelling, and free events. You'll become a KCRW Member and get a year of exclusive benefits.

DonateGive Monthly

Copyright 2026 KCRW. All rights reserved.

Report a Bug|Privacy Policy|Terms of Service|
Cookie Policy
|FCC Public Files

Back to To the Point

To the Point

Capital Punishment, Due Process and the Constitution

Three young children died in a house fire in Corsicana, Texas in 1991. In a two-day trial, their father, Cameron Todd Willingham, was convicted of murdering them by setting the fire.

  • rss
  • Share
By Warren Olney • May 12, 2014 • 1 min read

Three young children died in a house fire in Corsicana, Texas in 1991. In a two-day trial, their father, Cameron Todd Willingham, was convicted of murdering them by setting the fire. Just before he was scheduled for execution in 2004, an independent investigator reported that the fire was caused by accident, not by arson as Willingham's jury had been told. He was executed anyway. Since then two more investigations have found no evidence of arson. One was commissioned by the State of Texas. Did the state execute an innocent man? If the evidence was faulty, does the Constitution require that his life must be saved, or does his "full and free trial" justify the death penalty anyway?

  • https://images.ctfassets.net/2658fe8gbo8o/AvYox6VuEgcxpd20Xo9d3/769bca4fbf97bf022190f4813812c1e2/new-default.jpg?h=250

    Warren Olney

    former KCRW broadcaster

  • KCRW placeholder

    Andrea Brody

    Senior Producer, KCRW's Life Examined and To the Point podcast

  • Sonya Geis with wavy brown hair wearing a black dress with red accents and decorative earrings against a white background.

    Sonya Geis

    Senior Managing Editor

  • KCRW placeholder

    Karen Radziner

    Managing Producer, To the Point & Which Way LA?

  • KCRW placeholder

    David Grann

    Author of “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI” and “The Lost City of Z” ; The New Yorker

  • KCRW placeholder

    Barry Matson

    Deputy Director, Alabama District Attorney’s Association

  • KCRW placeholder

    Peter Neufeld

    Co-director of the Innocence Project

    NewsNationalPolitics
Back to To the Point