Link: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/homicide-and-cover-up-by-dday-im-sure.html

...is an old truism in the history of malfeasance. Currently my home state is proving the truth of this. It is highly likely that they executed an innocent man, Cameron Tood Whillingham, in 2004.
Now, in a highly suspicious turn of events, Texas Governor Rick Perry has suddenly dismissed several members of the Texas Forensic Science Commission that was due to report on the events leading up to the execution. He is trying to replace the dismissed members with hard-line authoritarians.
I have not recently seen a more blatant example of "stacking the deck" for many years. However, on another level, Perry's actions do not particularly surprise me. As Carol Tavris and Elliott Aronson point out in their book "Mistakes Were Made (But Not By ME)", the criminal justice system is a very good example of a system that persistently refuses to admit to error, even when the errors are egregious and obvious. Cover-ups and general avoidance and malfeasance are normal responses when that system is challenged by evidence of failure.
In any sensible legally policed jurisdiction, Rick Perry would not even have tried such a blatant piece of gerrymandering. However, this is Texas, a state that does not even allow criminal defendants the right of discovery (the term used by lawyers in this state is "trial by ambush"). In that context, it is less surprising that the state does not want to have to admit that the criminal justice system here is defective.
I would like to think that electors will take note of this malfeasance by Perry. However, given that they had one previous opportunity to toss him from office and failed to take it, I am not optimistic.
UPDATE - There are claims in the Houston Chronicle that Gov Perry's office refused to consider late submissions before the execution of Whillingham. This is potentially serious, the allegation is that Rick Perry deliberately refused to consider new evidence. Beware the comments section however, the intellectually dishonest authoritarian bottom-feeders are out in force with their peurile arguments and petty ad hominems...
UPDATE 2 - Gov. Perry has now commented on this case, only to utter a string of ad hominems and fallacies. Nowhere in his monologue does he address the underlying issue - that Cameron Todd Whillingham was executed on the basis of inadequate evidence. No amount of bluff and bluster can avoid that unpalatable reality.
UPDATE 3 - Another miscarriage of justice (this time the subversion and undermining of the appeal system) is also unfolding in Texas over a man sentenced to death, where it is apparent that jurors used Bibles as they determined whether he should be sentenced to death. Lawyers for the man on death row explain how they were denied the ability to ask jurors questions that would have proved their arguments...my cynical expectation is that Rick Perry will refuse to intervene in order to burnish his "tough on crime" credentials. The "hang 'em high" brigade has a lot of membership, particularly in rural areas of Texas.