Houston lawyers Friday filed a complaint against a former North Texas prosecutor, claiming he lied about cutting a deal with a witness that helped send a possibly innocent Corsicana auto mechanic to his execution.
The complaint against John Jackson was lodged with the State Bar of Texas to spotlight the former prosecutor’s alleged perjury during a 2010 court of inquiry called to review the murder case. Cameron Todd Willingham, 36, was executed in 2004 for the December 1991 murder of his three young children in an arson fire at his Corsicana home.
Neal Mann, a lawyer with Susman Godfrey LLP, said Jackson cut a deal with a jailhouse informer whose testimony was key to Willingham’s conviction, then hid it from the court.
Jackson has denied that he offered special consideration to the informer in return for testimony, but Willingham supporters said they have documentation that Jackson intervened for the man when he later was incarcerated in state prison.
Willingham’s conviction and execution gained international notoriety when three expert reviews questioned the accuracy of state and local arson investigations in the case. Friday’s action marked Willingham supporters’ most recent attempt ‑ over a period of six years ‑ to establish that irregularities occurred in the investigation and prosecution.
Jackson, who later became a state district judge and now is in private law practice, could not be reached for comment Friday.
Below is a video of John Jackson on Nightline a few years back in which he says some petty crazy things.