HEAR! HEAR!
The ongoing hearing using hearsay evidence from seventy witnesses to determine which hearsay evidence can be used in Drew Peterson's upcoming murder trial, should send everyone following this sordid story to study the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, the Texas man executed in 2004 for the 1991 arson deaths of his three daughters. Willingham refused a life sentence in return for pleading guilty, maintaining his innocence for the entire thirteen years it took Texas to execute him. Willingham is now considered by most authorities to have been innocent after several post execution investigations refuted that the lethal fire Willingham was executed for setting, was arson. No arson, no murder.
At his sentencing hearing one prosecutor told the judge that Willingham's skull and serpent tattoo fit the profile of a "sociopath". As Willingham's death approached, Texas Governor Rick Perry, a ferocious death penalty advocate, made some unusual changes to the appeals board hearing Willingham's case which may have prevented a stay of execution to allow the arson investigation to be re-opened. From such wonderful evidence and maneuverings, Willingham is now pushing up daises.
Kathleen Savio died the same year as Cameron Todd Willingham. Her death remained an accident till Peterson's next wife vanished and the resulting exhumation and autopsy of Savio changed the result from accident to murder, as law enforcement sought to put away a man they assumed was a repetitive wife murderer. How, after five years they can say with certainty that marks on the body were inconsistent with an accident and therefore murder, is a stretch to this observer.
Drew Peterson may not have a skull and serpent tattoo but apparently that won't stop Will County prosecutors from painting him as a sociopath on their quest to have him do hard time without hard evidence.
The only thing Drew Peterson is certainly guilty of so far is alienating virtually every human being in his life.
Originally published in the Chicago Sun Times, February 15, 2010
At his sentencing hearing one prosecutor told the judge that Willingham's skull and serpent tattoo fit the profile of a "sociopath". As Willingham's death approached, Texas Governor Rick Perry, a ferocious death penalty advocate, made some unusual changes to the appeals board hearing Willingham's case which may have prevented a stay of execution to allow the arson investigation to be re-opened. From such wonderful evidence and maneuverings, Willingham is now pushing up daises.
Kathleen Savio died the same year as Cameron Todd Willingham. Her death remained an accident till Peterson's next wife vanished and the resulting exhumation and autopsy of Savio changed the result from accident to murder, as law enforcement sought to put away a man they assumed was a repetitive wife murderer. How, after five years they can say with certainty that marks on the body were inconsistent with an accident and therefore murder, is a stretch to this observer.
Drew Peterson may not have a skull and serpent tattoo but apparently that won't stop Will County prosecutors from painting him as a sociopath on their quest to have him do hard time without hard evidence.
The only thing Drew Peterson is certainly guilty of so far is alienating virtually every human being in his life.
Originally published in the Chicago Sun Times, February 15, 2010
posted by Walt Zlotow at 9:07 PM
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