DALLAS (AP) — A West Texas woman who’s fought 20 years to clear her conviction in her uncle’s death will soon get a court hearing due to the fire science used during the trial.
Sonia Cacy was convicted in 1993 of the murder of her uncle, Bill Richardson, by setting him on fire in Fort Stockton.
But a state panel and several experts in fire science say the testimony used to convict Cacy was deeply flawed.
Fire investigation experts have spent years trying to change attitudes about arson cases like Cacy’s, which they say was based on guesswork, not science.
But those advances haven’t, for the most part, translated into wins in the courtroom.
