It's been six years since Cameron Todd Willingham was executed at age 36 for the arson murder of his three young daughters at the family home in Corsicana in 1991. But his case is far from over. In fact, it has become a catalyst for an intense debate on Texas justice, on the prevalence of "junk science" in Texas courts and on the validity of the death penalty itself.

Willingham consistently protested his innocence, and even before his death in 2004, experts had raised serious doubts that he had set the fire that killed his children.

In 2005, the state created the Texas Forensic Science Commission, a nine-member body that would investigate claims of misconduct or mistakes by forensic scientists. At the request of the Innocence Project, an organization dedicated to exonerating wrongly convicted people, the commission took up the Willingham case and engaged nationally renowned fire expert Craig Beyler to review the evidence. In 2009, he came back with a scathing indictment of the original investigation, saying it relied on "discredited folklore" and had no scientific basis.

But late last year, just a few days before Beyler's report was due to come up before the commission, Gov. Rick Perry abruptly replaced its chair and two other members.

The new chair was John Bradley, a conservative district attorney. His first act was to cancel the planned discussion. He then appointed himself to a four-member committee to review the case in private. Earlier this month, he told the Associated Press that Willingham was a "guilty monster," echoing Perry's words to reporters a year ago that Willingham was "a monster … a heinous individual who murdered his kids."

But Willingham's family and attorneys, anxious to clear his name, have asked for a court of inquiry, a rare procedure, to investigate whether he was wrongly convicted. Currently in limbo because of a stay issued last week at the request of the district attorney whose office originally convicted Willingham, both sides are scheduled to argue this Friday whether or not a hearing can take place.

If a court of inquiry finds Willingham innocent, it will be the first ruling in this country's modern judicial system that an innocent person has been executed for a crime he did not commit — which could have profound implications for the future of the death penalty, especially in Texas, the country's most prolific execution state.

But equally important is the issue of junk science, which is endemic in Texas courts, according to Jeff Blackburn, chief counsel to the Innocence Project of Texas. One solution he advocates is forensic labs that are independent of law-enforcement agencies - a policy wholeheartedly endorsed by Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos, who has been fighting for just such a regional, independent lab in Houston.

The forensic science commission, created in the aftermath of the colossal scandal that caused the closing of the Houston Police Department's crime lab in late 2002, is a good idea. We need to let it do its job - which is not to pass judgment on Willingham's guilt or innocence, but to review the scientific integrity of the evidence in the case. And the sooner we can get that independent regional crime lab up and running, the better for all of us.