Perry abruptly removed three members of the board, causing the cancellation of Friday's high-profile meeting in Irving looking at whether a faulty investigation may have led to Texas executing an innocent man.
The panel was considering a report critical of the arson finding leading to Cameron Todd Willingham's 2004 execution for the deaths of his three daughters in a 1991 fire, according to the Associated Press.
Alan Levy is one of two local members that Perry removed from the board yesterday. The other, Aliece Watts, is a forensic scientist in Euless.
Levy's term had expired in Sept. 1 but he didn't know that Perry was going to replace him.
"What his reasons for doing it, I have no idea," Levy said. "I feel like a jilted lover except that he’s prettier than I am."
Levy said he wasn't going to assume that Perry replaced the board members as a way to get Friday's meeting postponed.
"I’ve got my own thoughts but I don’t have any way of knowing," Levy said. "It’s just odd. I’ll assume that this was just part of the normal process but if it was, it certainly wasn’t handled the way it should have been."
Levy said he got a call Tuesday around 4:30 p.m. from someone in the governor's office. The person said the governor was "going in a different direction", Levy said.
"I felt like a decaying fish they were trying to dispose of," Levy said. "Since the job doesn’t pay anything, I’ve been thrown out of better places."
Levy had high praise for the way Commission Chair Samuel Bassett of Austin ran the Commission.
Levy said he had no idea why he, Watts and Bassett were replaced.
"Sam and I were the two lawyers. Everybody else was a scientist," Levy said. "The only thing that links us is Gov. Perry which of course isn’t much of a link anymore."
-Aman Batheja
Gov. Perry removes people from commission when he finds out they voted for President Obama or a democract in last years election. We only think that no one knows who we vote for.
I have first hand knowledge of this.
Posted by: fra | October 06, 2009 at 11:31 AM