"THE LETTERS TODAY FROM ELLIS AND NAISHTAT ARE AMONG ABOUT 8,000 LETTERS SKINNER'S ATTORNEYS SAID HAVE BEEN SENT TO PERRY URGING HIM TO GRANT A REPRIEVE. SKINNER ADVOCATES HAVE ALSO TAKEN OVER PERRY'S FACEBOOK WALL. NEARLY EVERY POST ON THE PAGE URGES PERRY TO POSTPONE THE EXECUTION AND ALLOW THE TESTING."
REPORTER BRANDI GRISSOM; THE TEXAS TRIBUNE;
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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 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."
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"State Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, and state Rep. Elliott Naishtat, D-Austin, wrote Gov. Rick Perry letters today urging him to grant a 30-day reprieve for death-row inmate Hank Skinner, who is scheduled for execution tomorrow," Texas Tribune reporter Randi Grissom's story published earlier today under the heading "Lawmakers urge Perry to grant Skinner reprieve."
"Skinner was sentenced to death in 1995 for the murders of his live-in girlfriend and her two mentally disabled adult sons," the story continues.
"For more than a decade, he has asked the courts to allow DNA testing on evidence that was not analyzed at his original trial, including a rape kit, knives, a man's windbreaker and fingernail clippings from Twila Busby, his girlfriend. Skinner says he was too intoxicated from vodka and codeine to commit the murders, and he says the DNA will show that someone else was the killer. The courts have denied the tests, arguing that Skinner had his chance at trial to test those items and that what DNA testing has been done was incriminating.
As the hours wind down to his execution, Skinner and his attorneys are awaiting decisions from Perry and from the U.S. Supreme Court. They've asked both to postpone the execution and order testing on the DNA. A Perry spokeswoman said today he still has not made a decision about granting the reprieve. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles yesterday denied Skinner's application for a reprieve.
The letters today from Ellis and Naishtat are among about 8,000 letters Skinner's attorneys said have been sent to Perry urging him to grant a reprieve. Skinner advocates have also taken over Perry's Facebook wall. Nearly every post on the page urges Perry to postpone the execution and allow the testing."
The story - together with links to the two letters - can be found at:
http://www.texastribune.org/blogs/post/2010/mar/23/tribblog-lawmakers-urge-perry-grant-skinner-reprieve/
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
