Elizabeth Gilbert has been added as a speaker at the 2010 Anti-Death Penalty Alternative Spring Break. Liz is a Houston teacher and playwright , who befriended Texas death row prisoner Todd Willingham and is featured in the New Yorker article by David Grann about the Willingham case.

She became convinced of Todd’s innocence and was instrumental in helping his family find an expert fire investigator to examine his case. The investigator, Dr Gerald Hurst, found no evidence for arson and sent a report to Governor Rick Perry. However, the State failed to halt Willingham’s execution in 2004. Further arson investigations have also found no evidence for arson.

Liz Gilbert will speak after the screening of a 17-minute film about the controversy surrounding the execution of Todd Willingham and how Rick Perry recently shook-up the Texas Forensic Science Commission by replacing the chair in October 2009 two days before the commission was scheduled to discuss a report casting doubt on the scientific validity of the arson evidence used to convict Willingham, leading many to suspect that Texas executed an innocent person. The screening will be followed by a discussion with filmmaker Joshua Riehl (photo below) and Liz Gilbert.

The screening is scheduled for Thursday, March 18, at 2:30 PM. We will be at the Texas Capitol that day, so we will have the screening in one of the rooms in the capitol complex.