Ernest Ray Willis (b. c. 1945 - January 7, 2021)[1] was an American man who spent 17 years on death row for murder by arson before being exonerated in 2004.
Convicted of murder after two women died in a fire in his West Texas home, Willis was sentenced to death in 1987.
Subsequent interest in the case led to new investigations into the origin of the fire that determined that there was absolutely no evidence of arson.
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.
[2] On the night of June 10, 1986, Willis and his cousin Billy came home with two women that they had met that day, Betsy Beleu and Gail Allison.
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.
[3] In 1990, fellow death row inmate David Martin Long gave a three-hour confession to starting the fire in Iraan.
The confession generated new interest in the case among Willis's appeals lawyers, and they worked to confirm the information in Long's story.
The crime scene evidence indicated that liquor such as Everclear and Wild Turkey could have been used as accelerants as Long claimed.
Long seemed a plausible suspect because he had admitted to starting a mobile home fire in Bay City, Texas.