( CNN ) -- A Texas state board said Friday that arson investigators used flawed science but were not negligent in an investigation that led to a controversial 2004 execution . The panel also said that investigators did not commit misconduct . Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in 2004 , 13 years after a fire killed his three daughters . Prosecutors argued that Willingham deliberately set the 1991 blaze -- but three reviews of the evidence by outside experts have found the fire should not have been ruled arson . The last of those reports was ordered by the Texas Forensic Science Commission , which has been looking into Willingham 's execution since 2008 . A September 2009 shake-up by Texas Gov . Rick Perry kept that panel from reviewing the report . But on Friday , the panel declared that investigators were using the science available to them at the time , even though it was flawed . The board said it would present its final report for a vote at a meeting in October . The Forensic Science Commission 's chairman is now John Bradley , an Austin-area district attorney with a reputation as a staunch supporter of the death penalty . Bradley has pledged to state lawmakers that the Willingham investigation `` absolutely '' will continue -- but said the panel needs better rules to guide its work , and could not say when the Willingham issue would move forward . Thursday , he told CNN that the concerns of Willingham 's supporters are based on `` a lot of misinformation . '' `` I think that 's being used very much as a side issue to politicize , through some New York lawyers , the work of the commission , '' Bradley said . `` The commission has been very clear that the commission is going to address the merits of the Willingham case . '' The panel also said Friday that a legal opinion that challenged the panel 's jurisdiction in the matter was not the `` law '' of the commission , state Sen. Rodney Ellis said . On Friday , he said he was `` happy '' to hear the investigation would continue , but concerned that the investigation was looking for misconduct and negligence in the wrong place . `` Unfortunately , the commission is off-track in terms of what it should be investigating , '' he said in a statement . `` It was painfully apparent that many FSC members believe that flawed science was used in the Willingham conviction , but the FSC does not seem interested in looking at the bigger picture : When did the State Fire Marshal start using modern arson science and did the State Fire Marshal commit professional negligence or misconduct when it failed to inform the courts , prosecutors , the Board of Pardons and Parole , and the Governor that flawed arson science had been used to convict hundreds of defendants ? '' Ellis , a Houston Democrat , serves as the chairman of the board of The Innocence Project -- the `` New York lawyers '' that have supported efforts by Willingham 's stepmother and cousins to clear his name . The group advocates for prisoners it says are wrongly convicted , and Ellis said the commission 's work `` is too important to be bogged down in political bickering . '' `` Texans need the FSC to perform its work in a timely manner , so the public can once again have confidence in forensic evidence and confidence that the truly guilty are behind bars and the innocent are free , '' he said . But Bradley said the commission has never decided to apply the logic of the legal opinion to the case on Friday 's agenda . Bradley was named the panel 's chairman two days before the Forensic Science Commission was to hear from Craig Beyler , a Maryland-based fire science expert . Beyler concluded the arson finding at the heart of the Willingham case `` could not be sustained , '' either by current standards or those in place at the time . The Innocence Project requested the investigation after a report it commissioned reached the same conclusion . Death-penalty opponents say an impartial review of Willingham 's case could lead to the unprecedented admission that the state executed an innocent man . Perry , who signed off on Willingham 's execution , is up for re-election in November , and his critics have accused him of trying to short-circuit the review . Perry has said he remains confident of the condemned man 's guilt , and police in the town of Corsicana , where the fire occurred , say other evidence beyond the arson testimony Beyler criticized supports the prosecution . Cox , a retired nurse in Ardmore , Oklahoma , told CNN that spiking the commission 's investigation would be a `` blatant miscarriage of justice . '' `` The reasonable people of this country and the state of Texas can see through what this is , '' she said .
NEW : Texas panel says investigators were not negligent and did not commit misconduct . NEW : Commission disagrees with legal opinion challenging its jurisdiction . At issue is a 2004 execution of a man convicted on investigators ' findings . Critics accuse the governor of trying to short-circuit the review of a 2004 execution .