Texas Forensic Commission - Good idea gone terribly wrong
I can’t say that I’m surprised anymore by anything the Texas forensic commission does. To be fair, to be fair, it’s not actually the commission, but it’s chairman - John Bradley. So far the condition has not had a chance to do anything; not only they have not done anything, they can’t even talk about what they are not doing because Mr. Bradley has instructed them to not talk to anyone about commission business.
The latest news from the Texas Forensic Commission that makes you scratch your head is the decision to deal with the case of Cameron Todd Willingham. Those who have been following this know that it was the commission’s decision to hear evidence from Dr. Craig Beyler that caused the jet governor to jump in at the last minute and remove several of the commission members. Now Mr. Bradley has apparently decided that they will take up the case, and appointed a committee to do that. It should be no surprise that he is a member of the three-person committee. It also should be no surprise that they are going to meet behind closed doors next week. What is a surprise is that the confirmation of the committee appointments is on the agenda for the day after the scheduled meeting. In other words, they are going to meet before the full commission has even approved the committee appointments.
Even those who harbored doubts initially now recognize that the committee’s actions are entirely political. Few doubted the governors last minute decision to replace committee members was meant to postpone consideration of the Willingham case. Some had doubts that there was any agreement with the chairman to delay the case, or scuttle it entirely. Those doubts have since been removed also. Almost everyone now agrees that nothing is going to happen until after the election.
What surprises me is that despite the consensus of opinion regarding the commission, Mr. Bradley is either oblivious to it, or doesn’t care. I sincerely doubt he is oblivious, since every major newspaper in the state has been critical of his actions. Not only has he done nothing to try and dispel the concerns, he appears to have gone out of his way to create new ones. You can only assume that both he and the governor shares the opinion that they simply do not care what everyone thinks.
I’ve said before that the commission has lost any credibility it may have had. As such, I wonder why we are even wasting time looking at what they are doing. No matter what they do it’s going to be suspect, and will not achieve the goals the legislature had in mind when they created the commission. Those goals were admirable ones, but like many good ideas it has gone terribly to astray. The best thing the legislature can do now is scuttle the current commission and go back to the drawing board
I doubt they will do that. Instead we will all watch what happens next week with the same morbid curiosity that draws people to slow down when they pass an accident. I admit, I’ll probably be one of those.
