It's good to review this case - covered in a Frontline documentary available to watch for free at the following link:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/front...ecute-an-innocent-man-answers-remain-elusive/
Forget the legal protections in place for defendants, the appeals process, the Governor's (Rick Perry and his commission's) power to commute, none of it worked.
What we had here was a failure of poor science presented as credible, and a failure for the justice system to correct the error; a conviction based on the false persuasion of 12 jurors of a '20 point list of evidence proving Arson', appeals to their biases by presenting rock music posters as 'Satanic worship', their inability to understand that one lie about his efforts in the fire did not prove the larger lie that he set the fire.
My prediction: everyone agrees that 'executing an innocent man is a horrible injustice' - but when actually presented with the evidence of it, supporters largely yawn.
'I'm not going to watch that video, it's too much hassle' contradicts the 'I strongly oppose any errors that can result in wrongful execution' claim.
Another bad note is that the officials who were responsible for the wrongful conviction - based on mistake, not intent - have never accepted their error.
I oppose capital punishment altogether; most do not. But this thread can at least be an example depriving the supporters of the false comfort of no wrongful executions.
One postscript after the documentary - when the commission formed after this situation to review capital sentences was finding this person had been wrongfully convicted, Rick Perry fired members and IIRC the commission decided or war ordered specifically not to investigate this case after all. That would have been messy for a presidential campaign.