DALLAS (Reuters) - A state hearing into a scathing report about evidence used to convict a Texas man executed in 2004 has been canceled after Governor Rick Perry removed three members of the panel, raising concerns among activists who believe an innocent man was put to death.

Cameron Todd Willingham was executed under Perry’s watch for the 1991 murders of his three children who died in a fire in their home in the northeast Texas town of Corsicana. Willingham insisted he was innocent.

The case has gained national prominence as leading experts have concluded the techniques used to determine the fire was set deliberately were based on flawed science.

The report was to be reviewed on Friday by the Texas Forensic Science Commission. The report was released in August and had been requested by the commission.

The hearing was abruptly canceled after Perry removed three of the commission’s members, including its chairman. Two have been replaced.

No reason was given in the statement from the governor’s office, although it noted that the terms of two of the members expired a month ago.

On its website, the commission said simply the Friday “meeting has been canceled” and no new date was given.

“We hope the governor’s dismissals ... do not signal a change in course from the honest reckoning with the allegations of forensic negligence or misconduct in this case,” said Stephen Saloom, policy director with the Innocence Project, which works to overturn wrongful convictions and filed the case with the commission.

“Should the commission conclude that the arson analysis that led to Mr. Willingham’s conviction and execution was baseless then it would be patently clear that Texas officials could choose to posthumously exonerate Mr. Willingham,” he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Since the United States resumed executions in 1977 after the Supreme Court lifted a temporary ban on the practice, 1,175 convicted criminals have been executed in America. Over 440 of those have been in Texas, which leads all states.

No court has ever ruled that any of the executions was wrongful, but a cloud of doubt has been cast over the evidence used to convict Willingham, especially the August report from Baltimore-based expert Craig Beyler who said the forensic evidence used in the investigation was highly dubious.

An expert report commissioned by the Innocence Project in 2006 reached the same conclusion.