For the first class, please read: the following 2 articles - available on the internet.

David Grann, Trial by Fire, The New Yorker, Sept. 7, 2009 and 

Maurice Possley, Fresh Doubts over a Texas Execution: New Evidence Revives Concerns that a Man was Wrongly Put to Death in 2004, Washington Post, Aug. 3, 2014.

Optional: Watch either of these movies: Trial by Fire or Icendiary: The Willingham Case.