Not exactly low carb, but a better meal than his kids probably ever had with him as a parent.
Willingham's
TDCJ sheet.
From the Texas AG--
Friday, February 13, 2004Media Advisory: Cameron Todd Willingham Scheduled For Execution
Austin – Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott offers the following information about 35-year-old Cameron Todd Willingham, who is scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m. February 17, 2004. Willingham. a former auto mechanic, was sentenced to death for killing his three young children in the family’s house in Corsicana in December 1991.
FACTS OF THE CRIME
The opinion of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeal summarized the offense as follows:
The evidence provided at the trial showed that on December 23, 1991, Willingham poured a combustible liquid on the floor throughout his home and intentionally set the house on fire, resulting in the death of his three children. According to autopsy reports, Amber, age two, and twins Karmon and Kameron, age 1, died of acute carbon monoxide poisoning as a result of smoke inhalation. Neighbors of Willingham testified that as the house began smoldering, Willingham was “crouched down” in the front yard, and despite the neighbors’ pleas, refused to go into the house in any attempt to rescue the children. An expert witness for the State testified that the floors, front threshold, and front concrete porch were burned, which only occurs when an accelerant has been used to purposely burn these areas. The witness further testified that this igniting of the floors and thresholds is typically employed to impede firemen in their rescue attempts.
The testimony at trial demonstrates that Willingham neither showed remorse for his actions nor grieved the loss of his three children. Willingham’s neighbors testified that when the fire “blew out” the windows, Willingham “hollered about his car” and ran to move it away from the fire to avoid its being damaged. A fire fighter also testified that Willingham was upset that his dart board was burned. One of Willingham’s neighbors testified that the morning following the house fire, Christmas Eve, Willingham and his wife were at the burned house going through the debris while playing music and laughing.
CRIMINAL HISTORY/PUNISHMENT PHASE EVIDENCE
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals summarized the evidence presented during the punishment phase of Willingham’s trial as follows:
At the punishment phase of trial, testimony was presented that Willingham has a history of violence. He has been convicted of numerous felonies and misdemeanors, both as an adult and as a juvenile, and attempts at various forms of rehabilitation have proven unsuccessful.
The jury also heard evidence of Willingham’s character. Witnesses testified that Willingham was verbally and physically abusive toward his family, and that at one time he beat his pregnant wife in an effort to cause a miscarriage. A friend of Willingham’s testified that Willingham once bragged about brutally killing a dog. In fact, Willingham openly admitted to a fellow inmate that he purposely started this fire to conceal evidence that the children had been abused.
Dr. James Grigson testified for the state at punishment. According to his testimony, Willingham fits the profile of a sociopath whose conduct becomes more violent over time, and who lacks a conscience. Grigson explained that a person with this degree of sociopathy commonly has no regard for other people’s property or for other human beings. He expressed his opinion that an individual demonstrating this type of behavior can not be rehabilitated in any manner, and that such a person certainly poses a continuing threat to society.
PROCEDURAL HISTORY
The Director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has lawful and valid custody of Willingham pursuant to a judgment and sentence of the 13th Judicial District Court of Navarro County, Texas. On August 20, 1993, the jury found Willingham guilty of capital murder and, after a separate punishment phase hearing, the trial court imposed a sentence of death.
Willingham’s judgment and sentence were affirmed on direct appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari review on October 30, 1995. Willingham then filed a state writ of habeas corpus on which the trial court recommended denying relief. The Court of Criminal Appeals denied the writ of habeas corpus on the findings of the trial court. The U.S. Supreme court denied Willingham’s certiorari petition on June 8, 1998.
Willingham filed a federal writ of habeas corpus in the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division on April 21, 1998. The state filed an answer and motion for summary judgment on July 1, 1998, and filed a supplemental answer on October 15, 1998. On July 25, 2000, the federal magistrate issued findings and conclusions and recommended that relief be denied. Subsequently, the court adopted the magistrate’s findings, granted the state’s motion for summary judgment and denied Willingham’s petition for federal habeas relief.
Willingham subsequently filed an application for a certificate of appealability in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The application was denied on February 17, 2003. After the appellate court also denied Willingham’s motion for rehearing, he filed a timely petition for writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court on July 21, 2003. The Supreme Court denied his petition for certiorari review on November 3, 2003.
MISCELLANEOUS
For additional information and statistics, please log onto the Texas Department of Criminal Justice website, www.tdcj.state.tx.us.
From a
World Magazine account --
In one of the cages on that sunny afternoon sat Cameron Todd Willingham, 30 years old. The rap sheet said that on Dec. 23, 1991, he killed his three daughters, two-year-old Amber and one-year-old twins Karmon and Kameron, by setting fire to his house in Corsicana, Texas. In a good-ole-southern-boy accent, the Oklahoma native claimed he was asleep when it started. "That was the only thing I was guilty of, was being asleep in my own house," he asserted with wide-eyed sincerity. However, investigators and then a jury found that Mr. Willingham started the fire intentionally with an inflammable liquid. His claims of heroic effort to save the girls were belied by his unscathed escape with little smoke in his lungs. The proceeds of an insurance policy on the girls were later used to buy a pickup truck. Mr. Willingham argued that his ex-wife's boyfriend started the blaze, but the jury in his 1992 trial delivered a guilty verdict and the death penalty. His date to die was March 4.
"Dying's no big deal," Mr. Willingham said. "It's just the thought of being dead that gets to you, huh?" He says that, in principle, he supports the death penalty in cases of extreme brutality. "If you take somebody's life in a senseless manner ..." he paused, "then I think you're just taking up space." Mr. Willingham claimed to be a Christian-"I'm just not a very good one"-but he did not know whether he will go to heaven.
"That's God's decision, not mine. If there's a place and he thinks I'm worthy, so be it. If not, I'll go wherever he sends me." He stated that because there are so many different interpretations of the Bible, nobody can say for sure what it means.
Yeah, right, Cameron. God's the author of confusion and nobody knows what "Thou Shalt Not Murder" means. Guess, what, Ace? You found out exactly what it means, ie. "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed."
From the Corsicana Daily Sun --
12/30 Willingham date set: Execution of child killer set for Feb. 17
Cameron Todd Willingham
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By LOYD COOK/Daily Sun Staff
If actions taken in a Navarro County Courtroom Monday stand, Cameron Todd Willingham knows exactly when he will die.
Willingham, convicted in August 1992 of the 1991 capital murders of his three children, saw his execution date set at Feb. 17 -- some 50 days from today.
Navarro County District Attorney Steve Keathley requested the setting of an execution date during a hearing presided over by Judge Bob McGregor of Hillsboro.
"The appeals have run their course and the conviction and sentence have been upheld," Keathley said. "The State of Texas requests that this court set an execution date."
Normally, District Judge John Jackson would have presided over such a hearing. But Jackson had recused himself, citing his ties with the Willingham case.
Jackson was the lead prosecutor for the district attorney's office in the Willingham case 12 years ago, securing the death penalty.
Willingham was arrested and charged in the deaths on Jan. 8, 1992, according to records on the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Web site.
The three children -- Amber Louise Kuykendall, 2, and 1-year-old twins Karmon Diane Willingham and Kameron Marie Willingham -- died in a fire at their home in the 1200 block of West 11th Street in Corsicana. The fire occurred on Dec. 23, 1991, just before Christmas.
On Monday, Willingham was accompanied by his appellate lawyer, Walter Reaves of Waco, and his attorney from the 1992 Navarro County trial, Rob Dunn of Corsicana.
Keathley said that Reaves asked Judge McGregor to delay setting an execution date, citing ongoing litigation concerning the constitutionality of using the "death by lethal injection" method. Reaves asked that the court wait to set an execution date until after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision on lethal injection issues that are being raised.
Judge McGregor denied Reaves' request, set the execution date for Feb. 17, and ordered Willingham returned to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to await the carrying out of his sentence.
The hearing was carried out under a heavy police presence, Keathley said, with members of the Navarro County Sheriff's Office and the Corsicana Police Department present for security purposes.
The 1991 trial was carried out under similar conditions, although for that event law enforcement officials searched spectators before entrance and limited access to only one of the two sets of double-doors leading into the courtroom.
Corsicana fire marshall James Palos was the fire department's chief investigator at the Dec. 23, 1991 fire scene. It's a day he remembers well.
"I can remember what I was doing that day, what was going on," Palos said Monday. "I can remember it just like it was yesterday."
He said firefighters had been called out earlier in the day to a fire on North 36th Street, a fire that was also ruled an arson. Palos said there were 11, 1-gallon jugs of gasoline involved in that fire.
It was while the fire department was in the mop-up stages of that North 36th Street fire that firefighters got the call to go to the Willingham fire in the 1200 block of West 11th Avenue.
The mood back at the firehouse, after the Willingham fire, was different than most after-action gatherings.
"Guys that normally joke around, take things in stride ... well, that day was real solemn," Palos said. "And the word (of the fire and children's deaths) spread around town real quick."
He said he had no problem with Monday's proceedings.
"It's been due a long time," Palos said.
Monday's setting of an execution date for Willingham was the first such proceeding in the district court since October 2001 when Gary Sterling, convicted for the May 1988 capital murder of a 72-year-old Navarro County man, was given a death date in early December 2001.
Sterling was granted a stay of execution in November 2001. He remains on death row.
Keathley said he believes that won't happen for Willingham. He referred to a document from the U.S. Supreme Court that issued a denial of the latest request for a delay. That document was dated Nov. 3 of this year.
"There's nothing in stone, especially when you're talking about the intricacies of the death penalty and the constitutionality issues associated with it," Keathley said. "However, I'd predict that this sentence would be carried out ... unless some unforeseen constitutionality issue comes up."
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I guess you're just a multi-talented guy, Cameron -- arsonist, baby killer, psychopathic denier of God's Word and
bad poet to boot!
In the Star-Telegram article, Willingham states that he "died 12 years ago." Too bad that's not true.
