11.06.09

More on Willingham, Bradley and the Forensic Science Commission

Posted in Around The State, Commentary, Criminal Justice, Election 2010, Williamson County at 12:56 pm by wcnews

It’s clear from this Texas Lawyer article on the shake up at the Texas Forensic Science Commission, Fired Up (tip to John Bradley on the Forensic Science Commission), that Commission Chair Sam Bassett was fired because of the direction of the Willingham investigation and not as part of the Governor’s regular order of business. And that their investigation was a political issue, not for the commission, but for the Governor’s office.
The article begins with new chair Williamson County DA John Bradley discussing how he wants to run the commission.

The prosecutor heading a commission at the center of a political firestorm will recommend ways to improve the panel’s operations at a Senate Criminal Justice Committee hearing Nov. 10.

[...]

Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, the new chairman of the Texas Forensic Science commission, says he will recommend, among other things at the Senate committee hearing, that during an ongoing investigation, the commission should be allowed to meet in private to discuss the matter being investigated and that reports to the commission on an investigation be withheld from public release until the commission concludes its deliberations.

[...]

Bradley says he also will suggest that commission members be appointed for three-year terms, not the two years currently provided under Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 38.01, so that there is time to train members to carry out the commission’s mission.

“The commission’s work is focused on investigating and then deliberating on allegations of negligence and misconduct in the forensic science field,” Bradley says.

Bradley says that when people act as investigators and judges, they typically should have some background in that work. Most members of the commission don’t do investigative work and need training, he says.

One of the things the commission needs to do, Bradley says, is to develop and adopt written policies and procedures, which it has never had.

Bradley will be discussing all of this on Tuesday in front of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.

State Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, chairs the criminal justice committee and was a sponsor of H.B. 1068, the 2005 measure that created the Texas Forensic Science Commission. Whitmire, of counsel at Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell, says he will ask Bradley at the Nov. 10 hearing for a status report on the commission and for Bradley’s assessment of the scope and parameters of the commission’s authority.

But Whitmire says he will also ask Bradley, “Oh, by the way, are you going to hear from Beyler?”

Whitmire says he is not troubled by Perry’s replacement of the commission members.

“My position is: He is the governor,” Whitmire says. “He makes appointments.”

But Whitmire says the timing of Perry’s decision to replace these commission members was unfortunate.

“If he had made the decision a month earlier, this situation wouldn’t be the way it is,” Whitmire says.

Whitmire says the situation does not prevent a new set of members from doing their work, which he says is “critical.” He says the important thing is to learn from the forensics and move forward.

And towards the end we find out what went into the decision to change leadership on the commission.

Bassett says he learned that he would not be reappointed in a call shortly before 5 p.m. Sept. 29 from Doris Scott, a staff member in the governor’s appointments office. As Bassett recalls, Scott told him, “The governor wants to thank you for your service, and the commission will be taking a different direction.”

[...]

But, according to Bassett, the commission’s investigation of Willingham’s case raised concerns in the governor’s office. Bassett says that in February, he discussed the Willingham case at a meeting with David Cabrales, then the governor’s general counsel, and Mary Anne Wiley, deputy general counsel for Perry. The Willingham case also was the topic of discussion during a meeting with Wiley in March, he says.

“It was clear to me they [Cabrales and Wiley] didn’t think the commission should be investigating the Willingham matter,” Bassett says. “The stated reason was they didn’t think it was the type of investigation the commission should be in.”

Cutrone declines a request to interview Wiley and Scott.

“We have a policy in the governor’s office that only people in the press office speak to the press,” Cutrone says.

Cabrales, now a partner in Locke Lord in Dallas, did not return two telephone calls for comment.

While it may seem like a good idea to take the commission deliberations out of the public eye, to take the politics out it so to speak, it likely wouldn’t have changed Perry’s decision.  The only thing that would have changed, in this circumstance, is that the public never would have known about this investigation, and why these commissioners were removed. They still would have been removed, for political reasons, because the governor wouldn’t have wanted the public final report to be released before the November election.

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