So says the Corsicana judge who sentenced him to die for the arson-murder of his three children, a toddler and two infants, and he makes a convincing case. For me. It’s a rebuttal to the anti-death penalty crowd–the usual suspects, including the Grits for Breakfast blog and the New Yorker, who think they have a winning hand in the callous wife-beater Willingham.
All because one outside analyst pronounced the state’s fire forensics in the early 90s case faulty. Now other partisans who claim Willingham was "an innocent man" are piling on Gov. Rick Perry, who wasn’t in office when Willingham was convicted but did deny his reprieve, claiming he’s obstructing justice by undercutting a state investigation. One of them is Paul Begala, the famous Democrat attack-dog, who likes to toss around the porn-word "teabaggers" on CNN. What a crew.
As one of the commenters at the Volokh Conspiracy has it: "I know the dude [was] guilty [because] his story makes no sense to me, and I doubt it would to any father. If my daughter woke me up to tell me the house was on fire, well, a lot of things might happen but one thing that isn’t going to happen is that she dies and I live." Nope.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 
If they’d kill the bastards in a timely fashion we wouldn’t have half the problems we have now.
Recidivism would be lower, that’s for damn sure.
jd
They do seem to be awfully slow sometimes.
Yeah, there’s a lot screwy going on.
I read a Libertarian writing about it and posted this
http://kagogi.mee.nu/good_question
Not sure what the deal is, but not really against the death penalty yet.
Then, I read more and posted this
http://kagogi.mee.nu/not_so_clear
Where I started looking into all the “proof” he was innocent.
Obviously I haven’t looked into the arson info, but all the rest of the stuff that “proves” he’s innocent looks kinda shaky to me.
And since he survived and his daughter didn’t, well, that sets off warning bells.
As the Volokh commenter noted, that’s not the way it would play out with most fathers.
He was a career criminal who, at best, let his daughter die in a fire.
Hardly a poster boy for wrongful conviction.
I’m comfortable with the death penalty as is. In each of these cases, howver, it is best to listen to the presiding judge, the prosecution and its witnesses and weigh their remarks against whatever opposition has developed. Best of all would be to read the transcript of the trial. Otherwise you are just getting cherry picked info from the usual anti-death penalty suspects–who will say anything to win.