If you’re Cameron Todd Willingham, who is profiled in this week’s New Yorker, you read a fantasy novel.
We couldn’t help but notice that Willingham, in the photo that graces the center spread of the issue, is reading a little book called Stormblade by Nancy Varian Berberick. Stormblade is a blatant Tolkien rip-off, the story of a dwarf who sets off on a quest to retrieve a powerful sword, is joined by a motley crew of human and elven adventurers, and confronts a dragon, etc. The sight of the book’s cover in the pages of a very serious New Yorker article instantly takes us back to being 13, having no friends, and reading lots of Tolkien rip-offs. For the book to show up in the hands of a man who was wrongfully murdered by the state of Texas should probably mean something dark and chilling.
Stormblade, you helped us through a difficult time in our lives. We thank you for helping Cameron Todd Willingham through a difficult time in his. Please don’t let us go out like he did.
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The idea of a Perry cover-up in the Willingham case is idiotic.
Perry’s replacement of the 3 board members was guaranteed to bring more outrage, more suspicion, more attention and, even more, negative political and media fallout.
And Perry knew that, before he did it.
Furthermore, the reports, highly critical of the Willingham trial forensics have long been in the public domain.
There is zero opportunity for a cover up, but a 100% chance of negative political fallout, which is the last thing Perry needs.
The question, then, is “Why DID Perry do this?”
It’s a mystery. Maybe someone will try to solve it, instead of crying “cover up” when the case is, already, fully exposed.
The comparison of Perry’s actions to Richard Nixon’s firing of Archiblad Cox are idiotic. Nixon fired Cox before the release of the tapes. Predictably, that is Barry Sheck’s analogy – simply stupid.