'INCENDIARY:  THE WILLINGHAM CASE' WINS THE 2011 INNOCENCE NETWORK JOURNALISM AWARD 

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI - The documentary "Incendiary: The Willingham Case" received the 2011 Innocence Network Journalism Award during ceremonies at the annual Innocence Network Conference Friday, March 30 in Kansas City, Missouri.

The Innocence Network is an affiliation of organizations dedicated to providing pro bono legal and investigative services to individuals seeking to prove innocence of crimes for which they have been convicted and working to redress the causes of wrongful convictions. 

The journalism award annually honors the "investigative reporter or reporters whose work best brings to life the process of identifying and exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals."  An independent panel of investigative journalists is assembled each year to review the nominees, and determine who among them best embodies excellence in investigative reporting.

INCENDIARY documents the story of Cameron Todd Willingham, whose three daughters died in a Corsicana, Texas house fire.  Convicted largely on faulty arson evidence, Willingham was sentenced to death for the murder of his children.  Despite overwhelming expert criticism of the prosecution’s “junk science,” he was executed in 2004.  Subsequent investigations of the case landed the Willingham issue in a national spotlight made brighter and more intense by the presidential campaign of Texas governor Rick Perry.  The film focuses on the science available to our criminal justice system and how its interpretation is often determined by jurisdiction, politics and personalities. 

The film was co-directed by Steve Mims and Joe Bailey, Jr, both of Austin, Texas.

Winner of the 2011 Louis Black South by Southwest Award, INCENDIARY garnered wide critical acclaim.  Anne Hornaday of the Washington Post wrote: “Nonfiction filmmaking at its most classic.  Crime, punishment, morality and hardball politics make for an explosive narrative mix all their own.” “Alarming viewing for anyone who cares about the American justice system,” wrote Sheri Linden of the Los Angeles Times.  Art Levine of the Huffington Post called “Incendiary”:  “A gripping, visually stunning indictment of a miscarriage of justice as great as that chronicled in Errol Morris’s groundbreaking THE THIN BLUE LINE.” 

"Incendiary:  The Willingham Case" is available for rental or purchase on Apple’s iTunes store and on DVD via www.incendiarymovie.com.  For more information on INCENDIARY and the Willingham case, visit INCENDIARYMOVIE.COM.

Above L:  The 2011 Innocence Network Award

Above R:  Steve Saloom (Policy Director, The Innocence Project, New York; featured in INCENDIARY), Joe Bailey, Jr. (INCENDIARY co-director), Steve Mims (INCENDIARY co-director), and Barry Scheck (Co-Director, The Innocence Project New York; featured in INCENDIARY).