Three exonerated former death row inmates showed up at the State Capitol Tuesday to protest the Texas death penalty system.
They presented a petition of about 6,000 names to Gov. Rick Perry's office to urge the governor to acknowledge the possible innocence of Cameron Todd Willingham.
Willingham was executed in 2004 for starting a fire in 1991 that killed his three children. Arson experts have reviewed the case, concluding the arson finding was scientifically unsupported.
Perry, however, has dismissed those findings, and has recently gained criticism for his move to replace board members on state commission overseeing a review of the case.
The first act of Perry's newly appointed Texas Forensic Science Commission chairman was to cancel the meeting to review a more recent analysis by a national arson expert, who also concluded the arson ruling was made under false grounds.
Those petitioning at the Capitol said they want Perry to suspend all executions and appoint a balanced and independent commission to examine the Texas death penalty system.
"Most of the people that deal with the death penalty, the anti-death penalty movement, they say Texas is a lost cause and there's no need to come here, so I'm here today to try to help the people of Texas to make them feel a better attitude about what they're doing, because people are dying in this state human beings that could be saved," exonerated death row inmate Shujaa Graham said.
The petition was held to coincide with the execution of Reginald Blanton.
The 28-year-old Blanton was put to death Tuesday evening for a slaying more than nine years ago.
Blanton's lawyers went to the U.S. Supreme Court to try to halt the execution, arguing black people may have been excluded improperly as potential jurors at his trial in 2001. Blanton is black and his victim was Hispanic.
He was the 19th inmate Texas has put to death this year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
