Two more arson convictions being reviewed after junk science was used to convict them.

 RICHMOND, VA. - Two men who claim they are innocent of arsons that killed their children are hoping scientific advancements in fire investigation in recent decades will clear their names.

Davey J. Reedy, 57, is on parole after serving 20 years for the 1987 arson deaths of his two children in Roanoke; and Michael L. Ledford, 36, is serving a 50-year sentence for the 1999 arson death of his 1-year-old son in Stuarts Draft.

Prosecutors remain convinced the two are guilty as found by juries beyond reasonable doubt.
Critics disagree and contend authorities mistakenly relied on what they believed was legitimate science. Some experts believe the two investigations were flawed and that the evidence does not show the two fatal blazes were the result of arson.

Reedy has a clemency petition before Gov. Bob McDonnell, and a clemency petition is being prepared for Ledford. However, unlike a DNA case where proof can be definitive, innocence claims in arson cases are tough to win.

"When you can prove some other dude done it you're in much better shape. With fires, it's not 'some other dude done it,' it's 'nobody done it,' and that's very difficult to prove once you're convicted," said John J. Lentini, a fire investigation expert and consultant.

Nevertheless, more than a half dozen people convicted of arson, usually involving deaths, have been cleared across the U.S. in recent years.

Lentini, author of the book "Scientific Protocol for Fire Investigation," said it is clear that many of the rules of thumb for fire investigation during the 1980s and 1990s have turned out to be based on anecdotal evidence at best and "witchcraft" at worst.

"The ability to determine where a fire started is even more in doubt (now) than it was in the '80s and '90s," Lentini said. "The more you learn, the less you know."

Ledford, 38 is in his 12th year behind bars for the Oct. 10, 1999, fire that started a few hours after the family celebrated his son's first birthday. The fire was contained to an area surrounding an upholstered chair in the living room of their two-bedroom apartment in Augusta County.

It broke out after Ledford left the apartment to run errands and to stop by the fire station where he was a volunteer firefighter. His son, Zachary, was killed by smoke inhalation and his wife, Elise, was severely burned but lived.

Authorities first classified the cause of the fire, which largely burned itself out, as undetermined, but later decided it was arson committed by Ledford.

For 4½ hours of a six-hour interrogation, Ledford was adamant he had nothing to do with the fire. He confessed after he was falsely told he failed the polygraph examination.

The Innocence Project says false confessions played a part in 25 percent of the roughly 300 cases across the U.S. where convictions were proven wrongful by DNA testing. In Virginia, that includes Earl Washington, who was wrongfully sentenced to death for a rape and murder. His death sentence was commuted, and he was later given a full pardon.
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/news/2012/aug/05/tdmain01-arson-science-questioned-in-two-convictio-ar-2109221/