ernest willis has spent almost two decades on texas s death row for murder by arson. 18 years ago, the house he was staying in with friends caught fire. killing two women. since the beginning, willis has maintained his innocence. in the years since his conviction, he has seen appeal after appeal be denied. he has also come dangerously close to execution. at one time, i come within two days of being executed. i had an execution date. after so many years, you just kind of almost lose hope, you know? yet, science could still be willis salvation. in the decade following the verdict, dramatic advances in the fire investigation field have been made. a fire investigation had nothing to do with science for a long time. and until the early 90s, they
the floor and then seeping under the thresholds. much of the furniture, including a large dining room table, has been reduced to piles of ashes. they thought that any fire intense enough to make a large heavy dining room table go away was more intense than a normal fire. after days of sifting through the home s remains, the investigators reach a conclusion. this fire was no accident. on top of the forensic evidence they ve gathered, police believe that survivor ernest willis is lying about what really happened the night of the fire. he was the only likely person that could have put the accelerant on the floor and probably lit it and still gotten out of the house with what little bit of burns and stuff he had. a pecos county grand jury hands down an indictment. charging ernest willis with capital murder. if convicted, willis could face the death penalty. i received a phone call saying that they had a warrant
the flames awaken ernest willis. i woke up in the early morning hours, i don t know, 4:00 or so. and the house was on fire. so i ran through the house trying to get to the back bedroom. i couldn t get there. so i run out the front door and around the side of the house and started breaking the windows and yelling for everybody to get out. his cousin, billy willis, makes a last-minute escape leaping out a bedroom window to safety. the two women are still trapped inside. it s too late to save them. the local fire departments responded. upon arriving at the scene, they found two subjects outside the residence and that there was two subjects still left in the residence. the house was almost totally engulfed in flames. gale alison and elizabeth belue ended up dying as a result of the fire. as firefighters struggle to extinguish the flames, police on the scene interview ernest and billy willis. they questioned us,
finally, willis gets the break he s been waiting 17 long years for when one of his appeals pays off. in a highly unusual step, a u.s. district court judge orders the state of texas to either retry willis or dismiss his case. he cites several factors including ineffective assistance of counsel and evidence contradicting the state s theory of the fire. ori white heads up the investigation. white, a college student at the time of the crime, is now the pecos county district attorney. jurors want as much forensics in cases as they can get. and in this case, the forensics were such that it allowed the jury to reach that conclusion. now it s up to white and his team to decide if that jury reached the right conclusion. we began to do a brand new just from scratch reinvestigation of the case. a lot of it was based on the
capital case does little to challenge the forensic evidence presented by the prosecution. there was no defense. i mean, he didn t even call character witnesses or anything. in fact, willis own cousin billy testifies for the prosecution. my cousin didn t actually say that i done it. he said that he didn t know whether i did or not. you know. but he insinuated. the jury weighs all of the evidence. and reaches its verdict. ernest willis is guilty. a day later, a judge sentences willis to death by lethal injection. i was shocked. after i was found guilty, and i thought the legal system worked. and how fooled i was. you know, i had very little representation. willis says that after sentencing, his cousin billy told him that he felt pressured by authorities to testify against him.