Incendiary The Willingham Case Analysis

The movie screening of “Incendiary: The Willingham Case” shed new light on several topics that I feel like I have overlooked in the past. This screening presented a film about a man named Cameron Todd Willingham who was thought to be wrongly convicted for the murder of his three children. Willingham was charged with arson and then later executed without any further investigation on the large amounts of evidence that suggested his innocence. This case is significant in that it helped fuel the anti-death penalty movement and emphasized how flawed our legal system truly is.
While watching this film, I learned that things may not always appear as they initially seem. When the investigators searched Willingham's home, they almost immediately thought that he was responsible for the fire despite having no motive because they found evidence of char patterns in the shape of a puddle, suggesting that he used accelerants to speed up the fire. With the little evidence the authorities had, they believed that Willingham was guilty; however, further investigation proved that it was unlikely that Willingham set the house on fire intentionally. Unfortunately, that evidence was ignored and authorities held their claim that Willingham was
guilty and proceeded to execute him.
The thing I found most interesting about this film was that despite all of the evidence the authorities found suggesting Willingham did not set the house on fire with the use of accelerants, they still charged Willingham with arson which eventually costed him his life. It also shocked me that the governor of Texas, Rick Perry, saw Willingham as a cold-hearted murderer even after the fact that it was decided that Willingham’s life could have been spared if it had not been for the use of forensic science.
During the discussion, many different and thought-provoking questions were asked; however, there were three particular questions that stood out to me. The very first question we discussed was whether or not we thought Todd Willingham was truly guilty. Surprisingly, a majority of the room with the exception of two individuals thought that Willingham was innocent of the murder. Despite believing that Willingham was innocent though, we all thought that he was guilty of negligence because he failed to provide a safe environment for his children, something a prudent individual would do. Another question that stood out to me was our views on the death penalty. A girl shared how viewing this film changed her position on the death penalty. She stated that she grew up in a family that was strongly for the death penalty but after seeing how Willingham was wrongly executed, she no longer thought the death penalty was just. The last question that stood out to me was our thoughts on Willingham’s defense team. We discussed how even Willingham’s defense team did not believe that he was innocent. This led them to not put forth maximum effort when trying to defend him in court and to have biased opinions towards him.
After watching the movie, I still had several questions regarding the case. I wondered that since Willingham's defense team did not seem to really believe in his innocence, would the outcome have been much more different had they fully believe that he was innocent and fought harder to prove it? I also wondered that during the time of the case, if investigators had the technology we do today at their disposal, would their conclusions over the case be different?
This film connects more closely to American social problems than what we are discussing in our American experience class because it highlights how unjust our legal system is.
This issue seems to be an imminent problem that is growing in today's society because of the increasing number of people who are wrongly convicted each year. Recalling the lecture Brian Stevenson had given us in the fall, there are still many individuals who are tragically executed for crimes that they did not commit. As St. Edward’s commits to stressing the importance of social justices, showing the screening of “Incendiary: The Willingham Case”, along with many other films, will help to spread the awareness of the amount of people who are wrongfully convicted and
executed.