Reading Journal December 3rd, 2010 (Lula Brown)

This story is brilliantly engaging and complex. In the beginning, it appears to be a bone-chilling narrative in which the author is conveying a belief that Willingham is guilty. I also believed that Willingham was guilty until about one-third to one-half way through the piece.

His story begins as something like a Law and Order episode, and transitions into more hard facts and similar cases proving Willingham to be innocent. The different characters he brings in and refers back to throughout really create a solid picture in one’s mind of the epidemic of the persecution of innocent people. In my mind, this story formed itself like a film would.

The Lewis/Lime Street experiment towards the end is one of the most gut wrenching pieces of information in favor of Willingham. Lentini and DeHaan’s $20,000 experiment mimicking the Lewis fire proved that Willingham’s fire was likely to have been an accident since the same pattern proved possible without any type of accelerant. A key point was the idea of “flashover,” which can cause erratic burn patterns much like an accelerant. Flashover definitely happened in Willingham’s case because his daughters’ windows blew out. After describing this experiment, the author seamlessly transitions back into Willingham’s story, as she does beautifully with all pieces of information and outside proof throughout the feature. By the end of the article, I was left with a strong feeling that Vasquez should be persecuted for affirming such ambiguous evidence that was later proved to be scientifically faulty. Vasquez and his partner jumped to conclusions and ended up playing a key role in the death of an innocent man.

I can't give this feature enough praise, as I sat on my couch with eyes glued to my computer screen, feeling a definite eery vibe, but ultimately feeling mournful and thankful for all that I have. If the story was not written in such an engaging, informative and poignant matter, I don't think this portrayal of the failure of our justice system would have resonated with me as deeply.