Trials and Error

This article: Trials and Error got reposted to Salon.com. It's a disturbing read, although it covers ground that has been discussed before among us. One case that is mentioned is the Willingham case, where Texas executed an innocent man (in 2004).

What prompted me to post here is one of the comments at Salon.

Quote :

In an interesting coincidence, the adviser to Texas Governor Rick Perry who advised him not to give Todd Willingham a stay of execution to study the updated fire science pioneered by people like Gerald Hurst was a man named David Medina.

In 2008, David Medina's house burned down. A Houston fire marshal ruled that the fire was arson, and Medina's wife was charged with the crime (Medina himself was indicted for covering up the crime).

The Medinas' lawyer argued that the fire marshal was wrong and hadn't used proper investigative techniques when he ruled the fire arson. The Harris County D.A. eventually dropped all charges against the Medinas (David Medina, then a member of the Texas Supreme Court after having been appointed to the seat by Gov. Perry, failed to win re-election in 2012).

So basically, the updated fire science that David Medina told Rick Perry not to listen to and the experts like Hurst that Rick Perry dismissed as "latter-day supposed experts" saved David Medina and his wife from prison.

Amazing how quickly your opinion of science can change when it's suddenly your ass on the line.

(Even though Rick Perry continues to insist that Hurst's work is wrong, he did not speak out against Medina using Hurst's conclusions to escape prosecution himself. So we have this weird situation in which the governor apparently believes that science works differently depending on whether you're a high-ranking government official or not).