TX - Hank Skinner, awaiting last-minute stay of execution, seeks DNA test

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2sisters

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Does anyone know much about this case? I am having trouble finding non-biased info.

CNN) -- Texas state lawmakers are among those calling for a last-minute reprieve for a condemned inmate who is requesting DNA testing of evidence, even as he is set to die Wednesday night.
Henry "Hank" Skinner, 47, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 6 p.m. (7 p.m. ET) for the New Year's Eve 1993 murder of his live-in girlfriend, Twila Busby, and her two sons, Elwin Caler, 22, and Randy Busby, 20, in Pampa, Texas.
"Since his arrest in the early morning hours of January 1, 1994, Mr. Skinner has always and consistently maintained that he did not commit the crimes for which he was convicted," defense attorney Robert Owen wrote this month in a 30-page letter to Texas Gov. Rick Perry, seeking a 30-day reprieve of Skinner's execution

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/24/texas.execution/index.html?hpt=T1
 
so they are trying to get a dna test done in 3 hours? lol
 
2sisters said:
Does anyone know much about this case? I am having trouble finding non-biased info.

CNN) -- Texas state lawmakers are among those calling for a last-minute reprieve for a condemned inmate who is requesting DNA testing of evidence, even as he is set to die Wednesday night.
Henry "Hank" Skinner, 47, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 6 p.m. (7 p.m. ET) for the New Year's Eve 1993 murder of his live-in girlfriend, Twila Busby, and her two sons, Elwin Caler, 22, and Randy Busby, 20, in Pampa, Texas.
"Since his arrest in the early morning hours of January 1, 1994, Mr. Skinner has always and consistently maintained that he did not commit the crimes for which he was convicted," defense attorney Robert Owen wrote this month in a 30-page letter to Texas Gov. Rick Perry, seeking a 30-day reprieve of Skinner's execution

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/24/texas.execution/index.html?hpt=T1
Click to expand...

I think if there is DNA available in a case it should be automatically run before someone is sent to the death chamber. :waitasec:

As often as we hear about innocent people released after YEARS in jail, I think we owe death-row inmates that much.

What if he is innocent and DNA is/was available but not checked?
What if it were your possibly innocent child?

Oh well. that's just me. :twocents:
 
I hate the thought that an innocent man could be executed. I don't have a problem with the courts granting a DNA test. If it can prove innocence in this case then I don't see why he shouldn't get one. Mind you I have no knowledge of this case at all. Maybe the test won't make a difference one way or another. I don't think a DNA test could be done in three hours? I always thought it took weeks or even months to do. It is most likely a stall tactic but there is always a chance (no matter how slim) that it isn't.
 
mkay882 said:
I think if there is DNA available in a case it should be automatically run before someone is sent to the death chamber. :waitasec:

As often as we hear about innocent people released after YEARS in jail, I think we owe death-row inmates that much.

What if he is innocent and DNA is/was available but not checked?
What if it were your possibly innocent child?

Oh well. that's just me. :twocents:
Click to expand...

I agree with you mkay882. We hear about innocent people being released from prison to often. I remember reading an article about a man who was stabbed on death row for not protesting John Wayne Gacy's scheduled execution date with the other death row inmates. He went about his day like he normally did because he didn't care about that Gacy and this p.o.ed the other inmates and they attacked and stabbed him. Thankfully he was not killed. It turned out this man on death row was proven to be innocent years later. I'm sorry I can't remember the innocent man's name right now.

I do believe in the death penalty but I think all evidence should be tested before a person is executed.
 
Well I know nothing of this case but if there is evidence that has not been tested in this case, and it sounds like possible good evidence then he should get his stay until all testing is done! How can prosecuters claim they have their guy if not everything was followed up on and examined ...

I vote give him his stay and get off your *advertiser censored** and get that testing done ! He may be innocent
 
Skinner and his lawyers said the actual killer could have been Twila Busby's uncle, Robert Donnell. Donnell, described in court documents as a "hot-tempered ex-con" known for getting more violent when he drank, attended the same New Year's Eve party with Busby the night of the slayings. Skinner couldn't go because he was passed out from vodka and codeine. His lawyers said Busby left the party and returned home after Donnell, who died in a 1997 traffic wreck, made crude sexual remarks to her.

Skinner's lawyers want DNA testing on vaginal swabs taken from Busby at the time of her autopsy, fingernail clippings, a knife found on the porch of Busby's house and a second knife found in a plastic bag in the house, a towel with the second knife, a jacket next to Busby's body and any hairs found in her hands that were not destroyed in previous testing.

His trial lawyer, Harold Comer, said he didn't have them tested before the trail because he feared the results would be even more incriminating.
http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/032410/sta_595489432.shtml

My comment...I would have fired his arse right then...if I knew I was innocent and my own attorney wouldn't do the DNA testing because he thought the results would be more incriminating...yep, I'd have sent him packin'!
 
I don't see the harm in granting a stay to do the DNA. If he is right his life was spared. If the courts were right all along, they can rest easy knowing they got their man.
 
momtective said:
His trial lawyer, Harold Comer, said he didn't have them tested before the trail because he feared the results would be even more incriminating.
http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/032410/sta_595489432.shtml

My comment...I would have fired his arse right then...if I knew I was innocent and my own attorney wouldn't do the DNA testing because he thought the results would be more incriminating...yep, I'd have sent him packin'!
Click to expand...
But then why didn't he? If he was truly innocent and he KNEW this would exonorate him, why didn't he?
 
Execution halted for Texas man claiming innocence

By MICHAEL GRACZYK (AP)

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday stopped the execution of condemned prisoner Hank Skinner about an hour before he could have been taken to the Texas death chamber.

Skinner asked the court and Gov. Rick Perry for the delay for DNA testing that he insisted could clear him in a triple slaying.

The brief order grants him the delay but does not ensure he will get such testing. Perry had not decided on the delay.
 
http://www.hankskinner.org/

I found this site. His execution is set for today (can't find a time) but there I didn't see an update stating that he had been executed (yet)... anyone know the status on this case today? TIA!
 
I would like to know the stats on the number of cases where DNA testing has exhonerated an inmate in a case like this. I think this guy is guilty, fwiw, but I am curious.
 
Disregard my above question reagrding the status of Mr. Skinner's execution today - thank you i.b. nora for posting that news!
 
oh come on...just do the test, for God's sake. There should never be untested DNA in any, if it was left in a place that has meaning to the crime. But why are we just hearing about this, he must have had a number of appeals before now?
I won't be shocked if it turns out to be his DNA...it will buy him some time at least. If it really is not his, than he did a lousy job all these years screaming for help. There are plenty of groups just dying (pardon the pun) to try to find innocents on death row, if he had reached out. I know that he is probably not the sharpest crayon in the box, but DR inmates usually become pretty savvy about their own cases.
I hope they test it and I hope we read the results...and that they prove something one way or the other and don't just confuse the issue more...like the DNA in the Darlie R. case, which I think proved nothing to do with the actual crime, also the Jeffrey McDonald case, if I'm not mistaken...there are times that DNA can be present and not be a part of the crime and times when it has to be relevant...under the fingernails would do it for me...
 
I think they should grant him a stay until the DNA test come back unless a DNA test has been done already that we dont know about. I could be wrong but sadly I dont think DNA is gonna be in his favor. I have seen some inmates swear there innocents and get DNA granted and it turns out it is there DNA. Either way if they have DNA they should run it especially to free the innocent.
 
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