In an emergency stay, the 3rd Court of Appeals ordered state District Judge Charlie Baird not to rule in the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, executed in 2004 for the murder of his three young children. Innocence Project lawyers, who are seeking to clear Willingham's name, have until Oct. 22 to respond.

The 3rd Court's ruling was prompted by a petition by Navarro County District Attorney R. Lowell Thompson, who earlier had failed in persuading Baird to recuse himself. Thompson contended Baird had not followed state law governing such hearings.

Earlier Thursday, lawyers and expert witnesses told Baird that bogus science and a career criminal's courtroom lies sent the 36-year-old auto mechanic to his execution.

As Willingham's mother and cousin sat stiffly on the courtroom's front bench, fire experts Gerald Hurst and John Lentini testified that not only was a fire inspector's testimony in Willingham's trial based on bad science but that his interpretations were "totally off the wall."

Thursday's testimony came in a court of inquiry one day before the Texas Forensic Science Commission was set to hold a meeting in Austin. Willingham's case is on today's commission agenda.

"Every shred of evidence points to his innocence," said former Gov. Mark White, a member of the Innocence Project's legal team.

White called the series of legal events leading to Willingham's execution "a failure of the system."

White excoriated people with responsibility for the manner in which a critical review of arson investigators' testimony was handled in the days leading to the execution.

Bogus science

Hurst testified that his report was submitted four days before Willingham was to be put to death, but a fax introduced as evidence showed that Gov. Rick Perry got the report little more than a hour before the lethal drugs were administered.

"There were no indications of arson," Hurst said in explaining how assistant state Fire Marshal Manuel Vasquez misconstrued evidence.

Lentini, who with four other fire experts also reviewed the investigation, said that all 20 of the indicators Vasquez cited as evidence of arson were bogus.

Bought testimony?

A San Antonio lawyer, Gerald Goldstein, another member of the Innocence Project team, told Baird that "jailhouse snitch" Johnny Webb twice recanted his earlier trial testimony that Willingham had confessed to killing his children.

Tracing Webb's criminal career to 1987, Goldstein called the man "a cornucopia of crime."

Prosecutors bought Webb's testimony, Goldstein charged, by downgrading an aggravating robbery sentence and arranging an early parole.

Webb first submitted a handwritten motion recanting his testimony in March 2000, Goldstein said. But authorities never provided it to Willingham's appeals lawyer.

"I can't think of a remedy to overcome the harm that's been done," White said in concluding the Innocence Project presentation. "It's a signal to the court, to the leaders of the state, to the Legislature, that it's time for a change in the way we hand out these sentences."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

allan.turner@chron.com