Advances in Science of Fire Free a Convict After 42 Years
A well-written article by Fernanda Santos.
Mr. Taylor after his arrest in December 1970; he went to prison at age 16. Photo: Harry Lewis/Arizona Daily Star, via Associated PressProsecutors who seek a conviction on a charge of arson must first prove that a fire was intentionally set, and then that the defendant was the one who set it.
Louis C. Taylor was facing arson charges 42 years ago, and he left court convicted on multiple felony murder counts for sparking a hotel fire that claimed 29 lives. He has always professed his innocence, and on Tuesday, advances in the science of fire investigations finally set him free.
He was serving 28 life sentences for starting the deadliest fire in Arizona history.
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A few years ago, the National Academy of Sciences turned its attention to the misuse of science in courtrooms, saying that pseudoscientific theories had been used to convict people of crimes they may not have committed. By then, a small group of fire engineers had already begun to discredit many of the assumptions employed in fire investigations, like the practice of using the amount of heat radiated by a fire to assess if an accelerant had been used.
[…]
Race and questionable investigative practices may have also played a role in Mr. Taylor’s conviction. He was a black man convicted by an all-white jury at a time of racial strife in Tucson; four years later, a lawsuit would force the city to confront segregation in the largest of its school districts.
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(The Tucson Unified School District is still operating under court supervision imposed as a result of that segregation case.)
Louis C. Taylor after his release from prison Tuesday in Tucson. He had always professed his innocence in a deadly 1970 hotel fire. Photo: Joshua Lott for The New York TimesMore on this case and other arson cases: Advances in Science of Fire Free a Convict After 42 Years
