Ernest Ray Willis is an American man who was on death row for 17 years before he was exonerated. Willis was convicted of murder after a 1986 fire in his West Texas home killed two women. He was sentenced to the death penalty. In 2004, Willis was released from prison after new fire investigators examining the case could not reach a determination as to the fire's cause, and they said that there was no evidence that the fire had been an arson case.
Background
Willis was from New Mexico. Before he was 40 years old, he had been divorced several times, and he had back problems that prevented him from working and made him dependent on food stamps. He developed an addiction to pain medication, and he had three convictions for driving under the influence. Willis had moved to Odessa, Texas, to live with his cousin, Billy Willis. They later moved to the town of Iraan, Texas. On the night of June 10, 1986, Ernest and Billy Willis came home accompanied by two women that they had met that day, Betsy Beleu and Gail Allison. Ernest Willis said that he awoke to the smell of smoke around 4:00 a.m. on June 11. The Willis cousins were able to make it out of the burning house, but the flames had pushed Ernest back when he had tried to rescue Beleu and Allison. Both women died in the fire. Police became suspicious of Ernest, and they arrested Ernest four months later, charging him with murder. Ernest Willis first raised the suspicions of police with his behavior at the scene of the fire; he was smoking as firefighters extinguished the fire, he did not seem to have inhaled much smoke in the fire, and his feet were not burned as police thought they should have been. Later, Willis failed a polygraph examination. Given that they had only circumstantial evidence against him, prosecutors were surprised when they were able to secure a capital murder indictment against him.
Trial and imprisonment
At trial, Willis appeared cold and emotionless, and prosecutors commented to the jury about his demeanor. Willis did not realize that his behavior was abnormal; after his arrest, for reasons that were unclear, he had been started on high doses of antipsychotic medication. These medications are commonly associated with an apathetic appearance. Willis was convicted of capital murder and sent to death row in August 1987. In 1990, fellow death row inmate David Martin Long gave a three-hour confession to starting the fire in Iraan. He had been involved in some criminal activity with Billy Willis, and he said that he hated Billy. The confession was recorded on video, but Long subsequently refused to testify in court on the matter. The confession generated new interest in the case among attorneys, and appeals lawyers worked to confirm the information in Long's story. An analysis of crime scene evidence indicated that the fire could have involved the use of Everclear and Wild Turkey as accelerants as Long claimed, and Long seemed a plausible suspect because he admitted to previously killing a man by starting a fire. Willis met his wife, Verilyn Harbin, while he was on death row. Harbin was the sister of death row inmate Ricky McGinn, who in June 2000 had been the first Texas inmate to receive a stay of execution from governor George W. Bush. Willis and Harbin corresponded and later met at McGinn's insistence. McGinn was executed in September 2000, and Willis and Harbin were married a month after the execution. As his appeals went by, Willis said that he became depressed and stopped exercising. Willis weighed 185 pounds when he went to prison, and his weight eventually reached 300 pounds.
Exoneration
After many years of trying to corroborate Long's story, his confession could not be fully supported by the evidence. However, the interest generated by the confession led to new investigations into the Willis case. In 2004, a U.S. district judge threw out the conviction, ruling that Willis had been unnecessarily drugged during his trial and that the state suppressed testimony from a psychologist who found that Willis was not dangerous to society. The Texasattorney general and the Pecos County district attorney declined to pursue the case further. The DA said that new investigators labeled the fire's cause as undetermined and could not find any evidence to substantiate an arson case. Willis was released from prison in October 2004. Willis was the eighth Texas death row inmate exonerated since the state resumed executions in 1982, and he was thought to have served the longest sentence on death row among that group.
