( CNN ) -- A Texas state board is set Friday to revisit questions surrounding a controversial 2004 execution , with supporters of the man 's family warning the panel is trying to bury its own critical review of the case . Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in 2004 for a fire that 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 Sciences Commission , which has been looking into Willingham 's execution since 2008 . But a September 2009 shake-up by Texas Gov . Rick Perry has kept that panel from reviewing the report , and the commission 's new chairman has ordered a review of its operating rules . Critics say that may kill the probe . `` They are attempting permanently to keep the investigation from continuing and moving on , and I do believe it 's because they do n't like the direction the evidence is leading , '' Willingham 's cousin , Pat Cox , said Thursday . 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 concerns of Willingham 's supporters were 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 meets again Friday in Houston , and one of the items on its agenda is a legal opinion arguing that the panel has `` relatively narrow investigative jurisdiction . '' The unsigned memorandum argues that the commission 's mandate covers only cases on which a state-accredited forensic laboratory worked . But because Texas started accrediting crime labs in 2003 , Cox and others who have backed the family say that would mean cases such as Willingham 's and that of another inmate , Ernest Willis , would be dropped . State Sen. Rodney Ellis , who pushed for the commission 's creation , calls the opinion flawed . The Forensic Sciences Commission `` was operating within the language and intent of the law when it determined that it had jurisdiction to investigate the case the first time in August 2008 , '' Ellis said in a written statement to CNN . `` Frankly , I am surprised that the commission is even questioning whether or not it has jurisdiction , since it unanimously decided -- with the attorney general 's representative in the room -- to review the cases over two years ago . '' 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 Sciences 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 that 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 : `` A lot of misinformation '' is fueling concerns , the chairman says . NEW : ``The president has been briefed on this and he will be making a decision in the next few days about what to do with our troops stationed overseas. " Outside reviews say the fire in which Cameron Willingham 's daughters died was n't arson . Critics say the governor is trying to short-circuit the review .