Monday, March 1, 2010

HANK SKINNER CASE; ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTS U.S. SUPREME COURT DISMISSED HIS APPEAL EARLIER TODAY.


"THE COURT ALSO REFUSED AN APPEAL FROM 47-YEAR-OLD HANK SKINNER. HE FACES LETHAL INJECTION MARCH 24 FOR THE 1993 NEW YEAR'S EVE KILLINGS OF 40-YEAR-OLD TWILA JEAN BUSBY AND HER TWO GROWN SONS AT THEIR HOME IN PAMPA."

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS;

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BACKGROUND: The editor of the Texas Tribune says in a note that "Hank Skinner is set to be executed for a 1993 murder he's always maintained he didn't commit. He wants the state to test whether his DNA matches evidence found at the crime scene, but prosecutors say the time to contest his conviction has come and gone. We told the story of the murders and his conviction and sentencing in the first part of this story." Reporter Brandi Grissom, author of the Tribune series on Hank Skinner, writes: "I interviewed Henry "Hank" Watkins Skinner, 47, at the Polunsky Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice — death row — on January 20, 2010. Skinner was convicted in 1995 of murdering his girlfriends and her two sons; the state has scheduled his execution for March 24. Skinner has always maintained that he's innocent and for 15 years has asked the state to release DNA evidence that he says will prove he was not the killer."

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"HOUSTON - Two condemned Texas inmates set to die this month have lost appeals at the U.S. Supreme Court," the Associated Press story begins.

"The justices on Monday refused a petition from 31-year-old Joshua Maxwell," the story continues.

"He is set to die next week for abducting, robbing and fatally shooting off-duty Bexar County Sgt. Rudy Lopes as part of a cross-country crime spree in 2000.

The court also refused an appeal from 47-year-old Hank Skinner. He faces lethal injection March 24 for the 1993 New Year's Eve killings of 40-year-old Twila Jean Busby and her two grown sons at their home in Pampa.

The men are among at least 11 condemned Texas prisoners with execution dates in the coming months."

The story can be found at:

http://www.the33tv.com/news/kdaf-joshua-maxwell-hank-skinner-execution-story,0,2594440.story

Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;