By Shelley Kofler, KERA News & Wire Services
Dallas, TX – A Texas state commission no longer allowed to investigate a case where death penalty opponents say a man may have been executed based on a faulty arson claim is recommending that all cases of prisoners locked up on arson convictions be reviewed.
The Texas Forensic Science Commission on Friday approved 17 recommendations for improving arson inquiries. The panel also is suggesting a review of murder convictions involving fires, starting with prisoners on death row.
At one time, the commission was investigating the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was put to death in 2004 for setting a 1991 fire that killed his three children.
Arson experts later determined the fire was of accidental or unknown causes, but the state attorney general eventually limited the scope of the commission's investigation.
New Tollway Access In Collin Co. On Monday
Beginning Monday morning during rush hour motorists on the Sam Rayburn Tollway in Collin County will have direct access to the Dallas North Tollway. The Tollway Authority is opening the first four ramps at the interchange connecting the two thoroughfares.
The ramp openings are expected to improve traffic flow through a busy area of Frisco and Plano.
Drivers using the interchanges will be billed through the Tollway Authority's electronic payment system.
You can find more information at the Tollway Authority Website, ntta.org.
Mother convicted in child's injury
Officials say a 28-year-old Mansfield woman has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for failing to protect her 2-year-old daughter from an abusive boyfriend.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that the child, now 4, has a debilitating brain injury and is in a permanent vegetative state. She lives in a nursing home for children in East Texas.
The jury took just over an hour Thursday to find Ryka Telan Hopper guilty of injury to a child by omission. They deliberated about 40 minutes Friday on the sentence. Hopper's daughter Ahnnakha was injured in July 2010.
Prosecutors said Hopper failed to seek medical treatment or outside help for the child.
The boyfriend, Adam Palmer, is awaiting trial on two charges of injury to a child and aggravated assault.
City manager cancels cemetery tours
A North Texas city manager has canceled a contract for nighttime cemetery tours after complaints that they are disrespectful to the dead.
The Wichita Falls Times Record News reports that Julie Coley obtained a 12-month special permit in July that allowed her to host the tours in Riverside Cemetery, telling stories of historical people buried there.
She began conducting Halloween tours at the beginning of October.
City Manager Darron Leiker says the permit was revoked after complaints from people who believe "these ghost tours are offensive, disrespectful and hurtful."
Coley contends she merely wants to share history with others and has been respectful of the grave sites and headstones.
New dinosaur species named for Perot family
A newly discovered dinosaur species will be named for billionaire former presidential candidate H. Ross Perot and his family.
The Museum of Nature & Science in Dallas said Friday that museum paleontologists will announce the discovery of the new species of the ceratopsid dinosaur Pachyrhinosaurus next week at a Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting in Las Vegas. The dinosaur was discovered in 2006 in far north Alaska.
The new species will be named the Pachyrhinosaurus perotorum in recognition of the Perots. In 2008, the Perot children made a $50 million gift to the museum in honor of their parents, Margot and H. Ross Perot.
The new Perot Museum of Nature & Science is under construction near downtown, set to open in early 2013.