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Did Texas execute an innocent man in 2004, when Cameron Todd Willingham was put to death for murder by arson? Many believe so. More than half a dozen independent arson experts have pointed to faulty evidence used to obtain Willingham’s conviction, at the very least raising the possibility that an innocent man was executed.

The State now has an opportunity to avoid repeating the same mistake in the case of Hank Skinner, due to be executed on Wednesday, March 24th. Skinner claims he’s innocent, and he’s begging for DNA testing that may prove it. So far, Texas Governor Rick Perry has refused to grant a stay of execution so Skinner can get his test.

Why? What is the Governor afraid of?

Joran van der Sloot can’t keep out of the public eye.

Twice arrested for the 2005 murder of American teenager Natalee Holloway in Aruba, and twice released, van der Sloot is back in the news after making another confession.

Shortly after Natalee went missing, van der Sloot denied any involvement in her disappearance. But apparently he enjoyed the attention he got by being a suspect. In 2008, he appeared on Dutch television in a video in which he tells a friend that after leaving a nightclub with Natalee, he had sex with the 18-year old girl on a beach. She “started shaking” and lost consciousness. Van der Sloot says he panicked and called a friend to help him. The two men put Natalee’s body in a boat, and the friend dumped her in the ocean the next day.

But that was a lie. Van der Sloot admitted making the comments, but said he only told his friend what he wanted to hear; it wasn’t true.

Van der Sloot’s current story skips the friend with the boat. In the new version, van der Sloot himself dumps Natalee’s body in a swamp.

Police aren’t buying it. Prosecutor Peter Blanken says that he and Aruba police tried to verify the story, speaking to witnesses and checking facts. But they’ve determined it couldn’t be true.

So why would van der Sloot make another false confession? Blanken responds, “You should ask him. Maybe he wanted to be on camera or make some money.”

In a verdict that has captured headlines in both Europe and the United States, and polarized people in a way not seen since the OJ Simpson trial, Amanda Knox, an American student charged with the 2007 sexual assault and murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher, has been found guilty. On December 5, the Corte d’Assise of Perugia, Italy sentenced Knox to 26 years in prison. Her Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, was sentenced to 25 years.

The details of the case are both sordid and sad. How anyone could slash the throat of an innocent person and leave them to die a slow and painful death is beyond reason. But also disconcerting is the reaction of the public to the verdict.

When the guilty verdict was reported on CNN and other American news sites, it immediately attracted thousands of readers and generated a storm of comments. Many of those comments expressed dismay and even anger at the judgement, unshakeable belief in Knox’ innocence, and disdain for the Italian legal system. Typical of the comments: “America has, like it or not, a better justice system than Italy. This sham of a trial proved that to me.” And, “Knox would never have been convicted in an American court based on the evidence presented.”

Perhaps those individuals are unaware of what happened to Steven Barnes.

Accused of raping and murdering a 16-year-old girl, Barnes was convicted on vague statements from eyewitnesses and weak, unvalidated forensic evidence, and despite the presentation of substantial evidence that clearly did not connect Barnes to the victim. After serving more than nineteen years in prison, Barnes was finally exonerated in 2009 when the Innocence Project helped him obtain new DNA testing.

This took place, not in Italy, but in New York.

Of course, Barnes’ story is not typical of American justice, but it’s not unique either. The 245 victims of wrongful conviction in the U.S., exonerated through DNA testing, would likely take issue with CNN readers who believe Amanda Knox would have received a more equitable trial at home. Not a few of them found themselves behind bars for crimes they didn’t commit principally because of corrupt police or incompetent attorneys.

Equally disturbing is the fact that the vast majority of the most adamant advocates on these forums did not actually attend the trial held in Perugia, Italy. Most of them probably don’t speak Italian and would not have understood the testimony given even if they had been present.

So on what are the protesters basing their convictions? Not on the evidence, to which they’ve had no direct exposure, but on the mere description of the evidence — sifted, edited, filtered — by their local news outlet.

This is not to suggest that CNN, or any other news agency, is intentionally biased. No such suggestion is necessary, since no reputable journalist would suggest that an individual’s fate should be decided by the media, or should be decided by the public based on evidence reported on by the media. That’s why we have a legal system with lawyers, judges, and juries. If we’re dissatisfied with the performance of this system, we should lobby our legislators to change it, not try to circumvent it in the court of public opinion.

Of course, none of this is likely to change anyone’s mind. No evidence is enough to sway the minds of those quick to judge without evidence.

How reliable are scent dogs in identifying suspects in a police lineup?

That’s a question that’s hard to answer since — in the US at least — there are no national standards and no system in place to keep track of a dog’s or a handler’s accuracy rate.

There’s also the question of how accuracy is determined.

In a typical dog-scent lineup, police rub a piece of gauze on a suspect’s skin or clothing. The gauze is then placed in a tin can and placed on the floor in a line with other cans containing gauze from other suspects or controls. The dog’s handler exposes the dog to a scent from the crime scene or from the victim, and the dog and handler then walk along the line of cans. When the dog detects the matching scent, it signals the handler by either stopping beside the can or barking at it.

It sounds like a simple, fool-proof system. Unfortunately, since no one speaks “dog,” it’s impossible to know what’s really going through the canine mind. How certain is the dog that it’s found a matching scent? Could something else be triggering the dog’s reaction? Could the handler — consciously or otherwise — direct the dog to a specific can?

And what if the suspect chosen by the dog is convicted, but then that conviction is later overturned? Is the dog’s record or the handler’s record updated to reflect that wrongful conviction? Is there even a record kept?

(See my post from August 5th about Bill Dillon, wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for 26 years after being tracked down by a scent dog.)

Michael Buchanek, knows all too well the danger of relying on dog-scent lineups.

Buchanek was a commander of operations with the Sheriff’s Office in Victoria County, Texas for more than 25 years when, in March 2006, he was accused of murdering his friend and neighbor, Sally Blackwell. His former friends and coworkers on the force were fully convinced of his guilt and turned to scent dogs to pinpoint him in a scent lineup.

Buchanek was not convicted. Five months after he was sniffed out by the dogs, another suspect was identified with DNA evidence and confessed to the crime. But the career officer says the incident has left him with a bad taste for law enforcement. “It’s pretty much ruined my life altogether.”

John Evander Couey is dead. For the family of the 9-year-old girl he raped and murdered four years ago, this is a small taste of justice.

In 2005, Couey, a registered sex offender, broke into the Lunsford home and dragged little Jessica from her bed. Evidence suggests Couey took the girl to the home of Couey’s half-sister, within sight of the Lunsford home, where he kept her for at least two days, raping her, and finally stuffing her into a plastic trash bag and burying her alive in the backyard.

In 2007, Couey was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping, and sexual battery on a child under 12. He was sentenced to death, but Jessica’s father, Mark Lunsford never expected live long enough to see Couey executed.

In the end, it wasn’t the State that balanced the scales, but Couey’s own poor health. Couey died of natural causes September 30 in a Florida hospital.