"THE TEXAS BOARD OF PARDONS AND PAROLES HAS REJECTED A CLEMENCY REQUEST FOR CONVICTED KILLER HANK SKINNER, WHO FACES EXECUTION LATER THIS WEEK FOR A TEXAS PANHANDLE TRIPLE SLAYING MORE THAN 16 YEARS AGO..."
REPORTER MICHAEL GRACZYK: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS;
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 February 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."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
"HOUSTON — The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has rejected a clemency request for convicted killer Hank Skinner, who faces execution later this week for a Texas Panhandle triple slaying more than 16 years ago," the Associated Press story by reporter Michael Graczyc, published earlier today under the heading "Convicted Texas killer of 3 loses clemency bid," begins.
"Clemency Director Maria Ramirez says the panel's vote Monday was 7-0," the story continues.
"The 47-year-old Skinner is to die Wednesday evening in Huntsville for the fatal bludgeoning of his 40-year-old girlfriend, Twila Busby, and the fatal stabbing of her two adult sons, 22-year-old Elwin Caler and 20-year-old Randy Busby.
All three were killed at their Pampa home on New Year's Eve in 1993.
Skinner long has insisted he's innocent and that he was passed out on a couch, sick from alcohol and codeine use, when the killings occurred."
The story can be found at:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6925192.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TEXAS TRIBUNE STORY ON THE PARDON AND PAROLE BOARD'S UNANIMOUS DECISION. BY REPORTER BRANDI GRISSOM; PUBLISHED EARLIER TODAY UNDER THE HEADING "PARDONS BOARD REJECTS SKINNER REQUEST";
"The seven-member Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles today unanimously rejected death-row inmate Hank Skinner's request for a reprieve from his execution, which is scheduled for Wednesday.
Skinner says he did not commit the three murders he was convicted of in 1995. For more than a decade, he has asked the courts to allow DNA testing on a slew of evidence from the crime scene that Skinner says could prove he did not kill his girlfriend and her two adult sons in the small Panhandle town of Pampa in 1993. The courts, though, have repeatedly denied his requests, arguing that Skinner should have had the evidence tested during his original trial.
With the board's decision today, Skinner's last hopes for testing on that evidence before he dies are Gov. Rick Perry and the U.S. Supreme Court. Skinner's attorneys have asked Perry to grant a one-time, 30-day reprieve to allow the testing. Perry has granted such a reprieve only twice before, and spokeswoman Allison Castle said today he had not made a decision yet about Skinner. The attorneys have also asked the Supreme Court to issue a stay and order testing on the DNA.
An Arizona-based lab has offered to do the testing for free and within 30 days.
Rob Owen, Skinner's attorney and co-director of the University of Texas at Austin School of Law's Capital Punishment Clinic, said he was disheartened by the board's decision.
"It is now more urgent than ever that Gov. Rick Perry not allow Wednesday's execution to proceed until all of the facts are in," he said. "We urge the governor to take the reasonable and fair action of halting Mr. Skinner's execution so that readily available scientific evidence can be tested before he is put to death on Wednesday. To do anything less means that the state of Texas is willing to risk the execution of an innocent man."
The story can be found at:
http://www.texastribune.org/blogs/post/2010/mar/22/tribblog-pardons-board-rejects-skinner-clemency/
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
