New York

Prosecutor Under Fire in Contested Texas Execution

The prosecutor against a North Texas man executed for the fire deaths of his three daughters faces new scrutiny from a New York-based nonprofit group accusing him of misconduct.

The Innocence Project announced Monday that it has filed a state bar grievance against John H. Jackson, a former judge who prosecuted Cameron Todd Willingham.

Willingham was executed in 2004 for killing his three daughters in a house fire in Corsicana.

But fire science experts have long said the original investigators were wrong in calling that fire arson. And a jailhouse informant who provided key testimony against Willingham tried to recant years before the execution.

The Innocence Project says Jackson and a local wealthy rancher tried to keep the informant from changing his story publicly.

Jackson has denied any wrongdoing.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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