Randi Kaye | BIO
AC360° Correspondent

Someone I know once said to me, “You can ride an elephant down Fifth Avenue in New York City, and nobody will look. Nothing phases New Yorkers.”

Well, today I found out that isn’t exactly true.

My proof: the electric car I drove around the city for a story for Anderson Cooper 360°.

The car looks like a souped-up golf cart. They come in black, white, red, green, champagne and blue, but no matter what the color, they are all “green” because they are all electric. They run on battery power instead of gasoline.

I climbed into one today to test it out for our story. In the passenger seat was Colin Reilly, who owns the company, www.freeelectriccar.com.

Let me tell you, Reilly was pretty brave as I drove around Manhattan in our open-air electric car, weaving in and out of traffic, and trying to avoid pedestrians and fire trucks with blaring sirens that seemed to be gaining on us every few blocks. I don’t even drive my own car in this city!

But.. back to our story.

The cars are street legal and go about 25 miles an hour. In New York City, we couldn’t go much faster than that anyway with all the traffic so it worked just fine. Some communities have actually lowered their speed limits to allow for these electric cars since they can only go on streets with speed limits that are 35mph or less.

The cars are better for the environment because they do not add to the carbon emissions. All you have to do is plug them in. That’s right, plug the car’s battery in and you’re good to go.

The battery lasts about 50 miles which is plenty for most people who use these cars. They’re popular with people who run errands close to home. In fact, Reilly says, about 80 percent of travel takes place within 10 miles of our homes.

And if you’re wondering how much it costs to run these cars – not much! Colin says the cars cost about a penny a mile. A penny a mile!

By the way, if you’ve ever wanted to own an electric car, I’m told if you buy one of these before the end of the year the government will give you a tax credit on the full cost of the car, which is about $6,500. You get that money in the form of a tax credit because this is all part of the stimulus plan.

The model I got to drive was pretty snazzy. It had a walnut wood interior and it even had a stereo system (which we cranked up). It has a horn which came in handy. When I was driving down Columbus Avenue, a guy driving a massive truck came up beside me, gave me the thumbs up, and honked his horn. His horn woke up the whole neighborhood, but I tooted my little horn back (it’s not much louder than the old bicycle horns) and he got a good laugh out of that. We actually turned heads everywhere we went. Never have I been on the receiving end of so many “thumbs up” from strangers. It was hilarious.

You can come along for the ride on AC360°. Don’t worry, there are seat belts ... but be sure to hang on!

Program Note: For more details on the killing of Annie Le, a Yale medical student, watch AC360° tonight at 10 p.m. ET.

Le, 24, a Yale graduate student was found the day she was scheduled to marry her college sweetheart.

Randi Kaye| BIO
AC360° Correspondent

I covered the brutal murder of Yale medical student Annie Le in September.

She’s the 24-year-old lab student whose body was found stuffed inside the wall at one of Yale’s labs on campus.

They arrested and charged an animal research technician, Raymond Clark III, who is still locked up.

At the time, we all wondered, what the heck happened? Well, today, we know a lot more.

I just got my hands on the arrest warrant affidavit which has some fascinating new details about what led police to arrest Ray Clark and charge him with strangling Le to death.

The affidavit appears to show that Clark was trying to cover his alleged tracks right in front of the officers investigating the murder.

Authorities say they found Le's body in the basement wall of a Yale medical research building.

Police say Clark raised eyebrows immediately when he allegedly tried to move a box of wipes that were splattered with blood out of the direct line of vision of a police officer. The wipes were on a cart in the lab and according to the affidavit the officer says she watched Clark turn the box around in attempt to hide the blood.

Also, while officers were casing the lab for clues, they say Clark began scrubbing the floor grate and drain with SOS pads and cleaning solution. That surprised them since they said it did not appear to need cleaning. And officers say Clark even changed his clothes at least once while the FBI was processing the scene. What’s up with that?

Another disturbing find: a pair of men’s work boots with blood-like stains labeled “Ray C” written on the back of the boot. The shoelaces were missing. As if that isn’t enough, the affidavit says a sock found at the scene had both Clark’s DNA on it, as well as DNA belonging to Annie Le.

The most damaging piece of evidence may have been found inside the wall cavity where Le’s body was hidden. There with it, a green ink pen. Why is that significant? Because Clark’s lab workers told police at the time of the murder that he would always sign in to the lab with a green ink pen to separate himself from everyone else. The day of the murder, police say Clark used a green pen to sign in to the building. Authorities say the pen was found under Le’s body and that it had her DNA on it as well as his. His DNA was found on the pen’s cap.

Before they were finished, investigators say they also found a lab coat with blood stains on it that’s a size XL. Clark is seen on video taped footage from inside the lab wearing a lab coat on the day of the murder. Investigators say they also noticed Clark had a scratch on his left arm and one on his face, but that Clark told police his cat had scratched him at home. Also, Clark’s movements inside the lab building made police suspicious. They tracked his key card which is necessary for access and, according to the affidavit, Clark used his key card to gain entry into the room where Le worked and another room 55 times from 10:40 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. the day Le disappeared.

According to the affidavit, Clark told police he knew the victim, Annie Le, for about four months but that she left the building about fifteen minutes before him the day of the murder. Clark has not yet entered a plea and is due back in court later this year. Do you think police have a solid case?

Find the full affidavit here.

Randi Kaye| BIO
AC360° Correspondent

Program Note: Don't miss Randi Kaye’s full report tonight on AC360° at 10 p.m. ET.

Randi Kaye| BIO
AC360° Correspondent

So let me get this straight!

Schools across the country are lowering standards – actually dumbing down lesson plans – to avoid sanctions under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).

That act was President George W. Bush’s signature education reform. It mandates that every child in school must be “proficient” in reading and math by 2014 and schools that fall short are subject to sanctions.

Now a new federal study shows that nearly a third of the states lowered academic standards in recent years. Fifteen states in all lowered proficiency standards in fourth and eighth-grade reading or math from 2005 to 2007. Three states – Maine, Oklahoma, and Wyoming – lowered standards in both subjects at both grade levels. Yikes!

On a positive note, though, the study found eight states actually raised their standards even though their funding was threatened.

The federal study found some states had been lowering their proficiency standards which made it easier for lower test scores to qualify as proficient. Isn’t the idea of going to school about raising students proficiency and making kids smarter? It was when I was younger.

What is more important, avoiding sanctions or giving kids a better education? Parents, if you’re reading this, how would you feel about your child’s school making it easier for your child to get by?

For example, in Mississippi, the state with the least rigorous standards, a score of 163 is considered “proficient” but in Massachusetts, at the top, the bar for proficiency is set at 232. That’s a difference of 69 points. Should your child’s education be determined by zip code?

The standards, according to the study, are highest in Massachusetts and South Carolina. Georgia, Oklahoma and Tennessee were among the lowest. But the standards around the country are all over the place. Translation: fourth graders in Massachusetts may be learning at a much higher level than those in, say, Tennessee. In the end, who does that hurt? And who will really be better prepared for the future?

Right now, there is no uniform standard for proficiency. The states, except for Texas and Alaska which declined, are working together to create some type of common academic standards.

The way NCLB works is schools get to set their own standards and write their own standardized tests. All they have to do is make sure their kids pass them. Dumbing them down practically guarantees that! If the students don’t pass, the federal government will take away some of the money the schools were given. Schools may also have to pay for tutoring students or even bus kids to another school where they can possibly do better. So instead of taking that risk, some schools simply made it easier for the kids to look proficient without really being proficient. Then they get to keep their funding and everybody’s happy, right?

Not exactly says the Obama Administration. It’s been trying to persuade states to adopt a uniform set of tougher standards for education but because education policy is largely controlled at the state level, the federal government can’t impose a set of standards. Education Secretary Arne Duncan puts it this way: “We’re lying to our children when we tell them they’re proficient, but they’re not achieving at a level that will prepare them for success once they graduate.”

Read the full report, compiled by the National Center for Education Statistics, here.

Follow Randi Kaye on Twitter @randikayecnn.

Editor’s Note: Watch Randi Kaye’s full report tonight on Anderson Cooper 360 at 10pm ET.

Randi Kaye| BIO
AC360° Correspondent

Is it a classic case of “he said, she said,” or is it a brutal case of racism? Whatever it is, it may land a Missouri woman, a preacher’s daughter who has never been in trouble with the law before, in jail.

It all apparently started at a Walmart store in Kennett, Missouri where according to police, customer Heather Ellis had cut in line to pay for her items. What followed is at the heart of a court case that may send Heather Ellis to jail for as many as 15 years!

Let me first say Ms. Ellis has pleaded not guilty. But here’s how police tell it: officers say they were called to the store after Ellis caused a “disturbance” at the cash register by “yelling and cursing.” Officers say when they tried to get her to leave the store, she turned and yelled at them, “I ain’t going nowhere until I get my (expletive) change back” but that even after she got her change, she continued to be “belligerent.” The lead officer says they tried to get her to remain calm and leave in a peaceful manner and told her they’d arrest her if she refused. That is when the lead officer says Ellis “issued a threat to assault” and said if the officer put their hands on her “she was going to beat my (expletive).” Well, it turned ugly according to police, who say she became “combative and began fighting.” The officers say Ellis “continued to fight, yell and curse” and was “completely out of control.” They say she “resisted arrest” and “stiffened her body” when they tried to put her in the police car. Read the full police report here.

Ellis is now charged with resisting arrest, assaulting a police officer and disturbing the peace.

But before you make up your mind what happened her... keep in mind that Heather Ellis is African-American and the officers involved are all white. Ms. Ellis isn’t talking, but those working on her behalf say she believes the charges are racially motivated. I spoke with John Chasnoff from the ACLU who has met with the Ellis family and he describes Ms. Ellis as “a very well put together young woman, very articulate, and very clear in her story about what happened.” He says, “She’s as sweet as can be and comes from a very religious background.” When I asked if she cursed at the police officers, the ACLU said, “that’s not language that I would expect Heather to use. According to her she was lifted off the ground by police and wasn’t’ in control of her body. She said they were forcing her to flail around but it was completely involuntary on her part.” Mr. Chasnoff of the ACLU says Heather Ellis told him she was “trying to defuse the situation and it escalated.” Why does Heather Ellis think race is the motive here? The ACLU’s Chasnoff told me that Ellis told him, “as she came out of store they followed her with a series of racial remarks, that included the N word and everything you can imagine.” Unfortunately, neither the police or the prosecutor will say anything more than what is in the police report. I should mention, there is store surveillance video but those tapes are not being released. The ACLU representative we spoke with said he viewed the tape and called it “inconclusive”. He said the tape only shows one angle and the family said there were more cameras in the parking lot that may show more. Where are those tapes? That’s what we want to know.

While Heather Ellis awaits her trial, which is supposed to start next month, she is working as a school teacher in Louisana. She also happens to be engaged to be married to a state trooper.

What side of this “he said, she said” debate are you buying? Would love to know...

Randi Kaye | BIO
AC360° Correspondent

Tonight on AC360, at 10pm eastern, I’ll be looking at the online campaign by folks who consider themselves “anti-vaxers.” These people are trying to scare others into not getting the swine flu vaccine. They say it could paralyze you. They say it hasn’t been tested on humans. They say it can cause cancer and autism and kill unborn babies. The swine flu vaccine back in 1976 did cause paralysis in some...and hundreds of families sued back then saying their loved ones died as a result of the vaccine.

What do believe? Are you planning to get vaccinated? What about your kids?

A photograph of Cameron Todd Willingham.

Randi Kaye| BIO
AC360° Correspondent

I have been reporting on Cameron Todd Willingham for a few years now.

He’s the Texas man who was convicted of “arson homicide” and executed on February 17, 2004, after 12 years of claiming innocence on death row.

Texas Governor Rick Perry refused to grant him a stay even though new evidence had come to light in the days before the execution that there was no evidence of arson at Willingham’s Corsicana, Texas home. His three little girls died in the fire. His wife at the time was out shopping for Christmas presents.

Have you ever wondered what a death row inmate thinks while the time ticks away, while he waits to die? Below you will find some of Todd Willingham’s most intimate thoughts about death, about his conviction and about his wife and the daughters lost in the fire.

Let me know what you think. And be sure to watch our continued reports on this case on AC360°.

Letter to Stepmom

Letter from Todd to Stacy Willingham

Letter about Death

Postcard from Prison
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Program Note: Watch Randi Kaye's full report – including her interview with David Martin tonight on AC360° at 10 p.m. ET.

A photograph of Cameron Todd Willingham.

Randi Kaye| BIO
AC360° Correspondent

I came to Texas this week to look deeper into a story I’ve been covering for a few years now for AC360°.

It’s the story of Cameron Todd Willingham, a father of three who was executed in February 2004 for setting a fire that killed his three daughters. But what if he didn’t set it? What if he just got a lame defense? Is it possible?

We wanted to know why he was convicted of “arson homicide” even though since the trial nine leading arson experts have said the fire showed no evidence of arson. So why was he executed?

We went straight to one of Willingham’s defense attorneys, David Martin, for some answers. We met at his Waco office, hours away from where the fire took place in the tiny town of Corsicana. Martin’s office was true Texas. It felt more like a ranch than a law office. We sat down in a couple of over-sized chairs (everything is bigger in Texas, you know) and talked about the case.

I asked Martin how it was possible that the prosecution put two experts on the stand who said the fire was arson, and yet Martin didn’t put anyone on the stand to refute their arguments. Why no expert to say the fire wasn’t arson in Willingham’s defense?

Martin told me, “We couldn’t find one that said it wasn’t arson.”

As a court-appointed attorney, Martin said money was hard to come by and he only had enough funds to hire one expert. And it turned out that the expert ended up agreeing with the prosecution’s experts about the fire being arson so he never put him on the stand.

“You’re just going to abracadabra an arson investigator up to put on the stand? You have to get money,” Martin said.

So who did Martin end up putting on stand in Willingham’s defense? A felon who was in prison with Willingham and the family’s babysitter.

Martin told me that he thought Willingham was guilty from day one and he believed that the patterns on the floor of the house showed that an accelerant had been used. If he thought he was guilty, could he have given him a good defense?

He said he tried everything he could to defend Willingham. He explained it this way, “you don’t have to believe somebody to defend them. You think Bailey and Cochran believed Simpson? No!”

Martin seemed to be enjoying our back-and-forth so I thought I’d press him on one last issue.

A juror told me just last week that she was having doubts about whether or not Todd Willingham really set the fire and was losing sleep over it all these years later. Willingham was convicted in 1992 and spent 12 years on death row before he was executed in 2004.

Martin’s response to this? “She doesn’t need to have no doubts in my mind. He really was guilty and it doesn’t matter how many people talk about it. The evidence is irrefutable.”

But what about the fact that this juror also told me her family was friendly with one of the prosecution’s key witnesses, Deputy Fire Marshall Doug Fogg. She said she told both the prosecution and the defense about this connection but was still chosen to be on the jury.

I asked Martin if that would be grounds for a mistrial. Without missing a beat, he told me absolutely not. He said it wasn’t a conflict of interest because “In a small town like Corsicana, lots of people knew Doug Fogg,” and “look at the evidence that was presented at trial. Would any reasonable mind conclude after the presentation of the evidence that he was not guilty?”

Before our interview was finished, Martin went on to call Todd Willingham a “monster” and a “sociopath”. He said Willingham was his own worst enemy and that he had so many conflicting accounts of the fire that the jury didn’t believe him.

Sound like a defense attorney to you? Or does David Martin sound more like a prosecutor? Martin said it’s not his job to “swallow” whatever story his client tells him, but he insisted he did his best to keep Todd Willingham off death row.

Randi Kaye| BIO
AC360° Correspondent

The National Academy of Sciences found that U.S. crime labs lack uniform standards, training and oversight.

Just Science Coalition

Unvalidated or improper forensic science is a leading cause of wrongful conviction in the United States.

As a result, forensic analysts sometimes testify in cases without a proper scientific basis for their findings. Testimony based on forensics can therefore lack basic scientific standards. Even within forensic disciplines that are more firmly grounded in science, evidence is often subject to dispute.

In 2006, Congress appropriated funds to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to thoroughly study the fundamental underpinnings of forensic science and its applications in our criminal justice system.

A NAS panel was formed – including scientists, academics, a retired federal judge, and other notable experts. Over a period of 18 months, the group conducted comprehensive research on forensic disciplines and released a This Committee on Identifying the Needs of the Forensic Sciences Community released its final report, Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward, in February 2009.

As outlined in the report, many forensic disciplines have evolved primarily through their use in individual cases and have not been scientifically validated or standardized.

Take a look at the report’s 13 key recommendations.

 Randi Kaye | Bio
AC360° Correspondent

Gabriel Falcon and Randi Kaye
AC360°

At least one member of the jury that sentenced Cameron Todd Willingham to death in the arson homicides of his three children says she is struggling with the idea that she might have convicted an innocent man.

It has been 17 years since Willingham was convicted in Texas of setting a house fire that killed his children, a crime Willingham vehemently denied right up until his execution in 2004.

Since that time, three investigations have concluded arson was not the likely cause of the 1991 fire, including one that arrived in Texas Gov. Rick Perry's office 88 minutes before the scheduled execution.

Perry replaced four of nine members of the Texas Forensics Sciences Commission in recent weeks, just before the commission was to receive a report from the latest of the three investigations.

The controversy has led juror Dorenda Brokofsky to think twice about the decision she made in a jury room in 1992.

"I don't sleep at night because of a lot of this," Brokofsky said. "I have gone back and forth in my mind trying to think of anything that we missed. I don't like the fact that years later someone is saying maybe we made a mistake, that the facts aren't what they could've been."

Brokofsky spoke with CNN by phone from her Midwest home. She has long since moved away from tiny Corsicana, Texas, where the fire took place.

"I do have doubts now," she said. "I mean, we can only go with what we knew at the time, but I don't like the fact now that maybe this man was executed by our word because of evidence that is not true. It may not be true now. And I don't like the fact that I may have to face my God and explain what I did."

"When you're sitting there with all those facts, there was nothing else we could see," she said. "Now I don't know. I can't tell you he's innocent, I can't say 100 percent he's guilty."

Brokofsky had another revelation. She said she thought she would be excluded from the jury because of her family's close relationship with key witness and then-Corsicana Assistant Fire Chief Douglas Fogg.

Her father was also a fire marshal for eight years before the Willingham fire.

"I was raised with my father being a fire marshal," she said. "He went around proving that stuff, so he wasn't here at that time. But I knew Doug Fogg, who was one of the witnesses. It was no secret, but I didn't think they would pick me as a juror because of it."

Critics say Perry's recent actions to shake up the commission were politically motivated, a charge he denies.

Perry's office said it received a five-page fax on the day of the execution that contained an arson expert's findings that the fire was not deliberately set.

It is unclear whether Perry read the fax.

"Given the brevity of the report and the general counsel's familiarity with all the other facts in the case, there was ample time for the general counsel to read and analyze the report and to brief the governor on its contents," Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle said.

Willingham was executed less than two hours later.

Death-penalty opponents say an impartial review of Willingham's case could lead to an unprecedented admission - that the state executed an innocent man. The latest report concluded that the arson ruling at the heart of Willingham's conviction "could not be sustained" by modern science or the standards of the time.

Perry said he remains confident Willingham was guilty, as do authorities in Corsicana, south of Dallas, who prosecuted Willingham.

Willingham's wife's brother, Ronnie Kuykendall, said in a signed affidavit that Stacy Willingham told her family that Todd Willingham confessed to killing the children during her visit to him on death row a few days before the execution.

But Stacy Willingham testified for her husband during his trial, while her family argued he was guilty. CNN could not reach her for comment.

Even Willingham's defense attorney, David Martin, remains confident his client committed the crime.

"There was no question whatsoever that he was guilty," Martin said on CNN's "AC360" Thursday night. Video Watch defense attorney say client was guilty.

Martin slammed the most recent report on the Willing ham case, by Maryland arson expert Craig Beyler, as "one of the least objective reports I've ever read."

On Thursday, Perry also lambasted the Beyler report as having "a very politically driven agenda" and being propaganda for the anti-death penalty movement.

Beyler, asked about Perry's statements, said they were "strange and clueless."

A family photo shows Cameron Todd Willingham with his wife, Stacy, and daughters Kameron, Amber and Karmon.

Gabriel Falcon and Randi Kaye
AC360°
CNN

At least one member of the jury that sentenced Cameron Todd Willingham to death in the arson homicides of his three children says she is struggling with the idea that she might have convicted an innocent man.

It has been 17 years since Willingham was convicted in Texas of setting a house fire that killed his children, a crime Willingham vehemently denied right up until his execution in 2004.

Since that time, three investigations have concluded arson was not the likely cause of the 1991 fire, including one that arrived in Texas Gov. Rick Perry's office 88 minutes before the scheduled execution.

Perry replaced four of nine members of the Texas Forensics Sciences Commission in recent weeks, just before the commission was to receive a report from the latest of the three investigations.

The controversy has led juror Dorenda Brokofsky to think twice about the decision she made in a jury room in 1992.

"I don't sleep at night because of a lot of this," Brokofsky said. "I have gone back and forth in my mind trying to think of anything that we missed. I don't like the fact that years later someone is saying maybe we made a mistake, that the facts aren't what they could've been."

Keep Reading...

Program Note: Randi Kaye is Keeping them Honest with more details tonight on AC360° at 10 p.m. ET.

Randi Kaye | BIO
AC360° Anchor

It all started in 1991 just days before Christmas in the small town of Corsicana, Texas.

Cameron Todd Willingham was home alone with his three little girls when the house caught on fire. All three children died and Willingham got out with just some minor burns. He was convicted of "arson homicide" and sentenced to death for setting the fire while his wife was out shopping for Christmas presents.

I've covered this case for years now for AC360° and there are still so many unanswered questions.

Top of the list: "Was an innocent man executed?" And now, is Texas Governor Rick Perry trying to cover up evidence that would show he was innocent? Willingham died by lethal injection February 17, 2004, after Texas Governor Rick Perry refused to grant him a stay even though new evidence had come to light that the fire was not arson! Mr. Perry is now in a heated re-election campaign.

Willingham's stepmother, Eugena Willingham, told me she visited her son on death row every six weeks for 12 years. She always believed in her son's innocence. I remember discussing the case over iced tea and homemade cookies in her Ardmore, Oklahoma home. She's a sweet woman with a Texas-sized heart.

A family photo shows Cameron Todd Willingham with his wife, Stacy, and daughters Kameron, Amber and Karmon.

We sat in her kitchen a couple years ago, when I first interviewed her for a story on AC360°, and she showed me the family photo album. So many pictures of her son Todd and her granddaughters. She told me, "Todd called them his babies." She spread his ashes over their graves.

For weeks, Governor Perry has been facing criticism for suddenly removing four members of a state commission which had set out to determine once and for all if Todd Willingham was innocent when he died.

This replacement of four members of the commission that had already been working on the case means the state's work on the case is delayed, and maybe even derailed for good. The findings were supposed to be released just weeks before the Texas Republican Primary vote.

One person watching this case with eyes wide open now is Dorenda Lynn Brokofsky. She was on the jury in the Willingham arson trial back in 1992 and she told me today, she hasn't slept very much since. All these years later, Brokofsky wonders if Willingham was innocent, even though she decided along with the others at the time that he was guilty.

Gov. Rick Perry's office said the moves were a routine replacement of members whose terms had expired.

We spoke by phone from her home in the midwest, where she moved after leaving Corsicana, where the fire took place. She dropped a couple of bombshells that left many of us here at AC360° shaking our heads.

She told me, "My dad was a fire marshall for eight years in Corsicana." He wasn't the fire marshall at the time of the Willingham fire, but she had a connection. And get this, she said her family was "good friends" with Douglas Fogg. Fogg was the deputy fire marshall and a key witness in the case. Fogg’s determination that the fire was arson really helped send Willingham to death row.

I interviewed Douglas Fogg years ago about this case and he told me he still stands by his findings and believes Willingham set the fire. I asked him if he's at all concerned he may have sent an innocent man to his death? He said, simply, "No."

But back to the juror who knew Investigator Fogg. How could prosecutors, the judge, and even the defense, let a woman on the jury who was "good friends" with a key witness for the prosecution and the deputy investigator? Wouldn't that be a mistrial? Too late for Todd Willingham now, but the juror told me, "I told them I knew Mr. Fogg but they didn't care."

To this day, Brokofsky isn't sure Willingham was guilty. "When you're sitting there with all those facts, there was nothing else we could see. Now I don't know. I can't tell you he's innocent, I can't say 100 percent he's guilty," Dorenda said.

"I don't sleep at night because of a lot of this,” she told me. “I have gone back and forth in my mind trying to think of anything that we missed. I don't like the fact that years later someone is saying maybe we made a mistake. That the facts aren't what they could've been."

Brokofsky said, "I've got to stand in front of my God one day and explain what I did."

To be fair, Todd Willingham wasn't perfect. He had a history and was known around town for domestic disputes with his wife. Texas Governor Rick Perry, who has always said there was "overwhelming" evidence Willingham was guilty, just yesterday called him a "monster" and said he had tried to beat his wife into having an abortion, suggesting Willingham did not want the children. Willingham's stepmother told me they did fight, but she "never saw any bruises on his wife."

When I told the juror that arson science has changed over the years and that at least half a dozen arson experts now say the fire was not arson and not intentionally set, Brokofsky got so upset she had to get off the phone. She said she needed some time to "process this."

Imagine, wondering all your life, if you sent an innocent man to the death chamber?

Last week, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has removed a fourth member of a state commission charged with investigating claims that an innocent man may have been executed.

The Texas governor has now replaced all of the four members that, under law, he is allowed to appoint to the commission. The remaining five members are appointed by the state's lieutenant governor and attorney general.

Perry's critics say his actions are politically motivated, a charge he denies.

The investigation into claims that faulty evidence led Texas to execute an innocent man in 2004 was at a "crucial point" when the shakeup occurred, one of the replaced members said.

The commission was to hear from the author of a scathing report in the case of the executed man, Cameron Todd Willingham, when Perry announced on September 30 that he would replace three members.

The session was postponed indefinitely because of the new appointments, and Perry's critics accused him of trying to quash the Willingham probe.

Learn more about the story here.

Randi Kaye | BIO
AC360° Anchor

Randi Kaye
CNN AC360° correspondent

Forty-five-year-old Nancy Pessler is too sick to work full time. Instead, she has turned fighting her insurance company into a full-time job. Pessler, who lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, is one of so many Americans falling through the cracks in the health care debate.

She was diagnosed in 2003 with a rare disease known as "mixed connective tissue disease" which is combination of lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and a few others all wrapped into one. Pessler wakes up every day feeling like she has the flu. "My immune system is in the tank," she told CNN. Because of this, she says, she's too fatigued to work full time. And that's why she finds herself in this predicament.

She's too sick to work full time, so she can't get full comprehensive health coverage from an employer. And she can't get an individual comprehensive health coverage either because of what insurance companies view as her "pre-existing condition." Pessler says she spends hours on the phone battling to get her bills paid, and she's going broke in the process. "First, you're on hold for about 20, 30 minutes. Then after you get off being on hold you get a representative ... they'll get back in touch with you or call another person or transfer you to another person ... it's quite an ordeal," says Pessler.

Pessler had COBRA, the government plan that allows former employees to continue to pay for their previous employer's insurance out of their own pocket, with the same benefits, for 18 months. Once it ran out, she says her insurance company, Anthem Insurance, only offered her a plan which didn't cover anything related to her "pre-existing condition." She says, "I feel the system has failed me ... I've paid into Social Security, Medicare, disability. It leaves me hopeless. I feel like there's no solution for my situation."

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