"Bowing to media pressure, the DA unilaterally arranged to test more items in 2000, but not two bloody knives, a bloody towel, a bloody jacket, material beneath the victim's fingernails or a vaginal swab.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has blocked tests on those items, ruling that Skinner had a decent trial lawyer who made a decent deal on testing, and a deal is a deal. But in light of what is known now about DNA exonerations, could any such deal be reasonably defended today?"
EDITORIAL: THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS;
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BACKGROUND OF APPEAL: Skinner v. Switzer, No. 09-9000, an appeal from Hank Skinner, an inmate in Texas who is seeking access to DNA evidence that he says could prove his innocence. In March, the court granted a stay of execution less than an hour before Mr. Skinner was to be put to death in the murder of his girlfriend and her two sons. Mr. Skinner seeks to test blood, fingernail scrapings and hair found at the scene of the killings. He maintains that he was sleeping on a sofa in a stupor induced by vodka and codeine when the killings took place on Dec. 31, 1993. Prosecutors say he is making his request too late. They add that testing would be pointless because "no item of evidence exists that would conclusively prove that Skinner did not commit the murder." Reporter Adam Liptak: New York Times;
BACKGROUND OF CASE: "Hank Skinner faces execution 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; 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." Texas Tribune;
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"Attorneys for Texas death-row inmate Hank Skinner have launched somewhat of a Hail Mary pass in efforts to get untested physical evidence in his murder case off to a DNA lab," the Dallas Morning News editorial published earlier today under the heading, "Editorial: Test all DNA in Skinner case," begins.
"It has come to this: Skinner's lawyers will stand today before the U.S. Supreme Court and argue the merits of a civil rights lawsuit against a district attorney's office that refuses to subject the likely murder weapons and other items to forensic tests," the editorial continues.
"At best, the door is barely open for the defense. The court has been reluctant to stretch civil rights statues for challenges to such matters as a state's procedures on access to DNA.
If Skinner loses, our state again could be in the embarrassing and outrageous position of authorizing an execution with potentially exculpatory evidence locked away.
Skinner was convicted in 1995 in the murders of his girlfriend and her sons in the Panhandle town of Pampa. Though found with the victims' blood on him, Skinner maintains he was too incapacitated by drugs and alcohol to kill them. His trial attorney made a strategic decision to ask for DNA tests on only some of the physical evidence.
Bowing to media pressure, the DA unilaterally arranged to test more items in 2000, but not two bloody knives, a bloody towel, a bloody jacket, material beneath the victim's fingernails or a vaginal swab.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has blocked tests on those items, ruling that Skinner had a decent trial lawyer who made a decent deal on testing, and a deal is a deal. But in light of what is known now about DNA exonerations, could any such deal be reasonably defended today?
Critics of Skinner's civil rights lawsuit worry that, should he prevail, federal courts could be flooded with challenges to states' procedures on access to DNA testing. The court system has adjusted before, however, after the emergence of technology and recognition that post-conviction testing corrects grievous mistakes. Texas courts have not ground to a halt in the nine years since prisoners gained the right to petition for DNA tests.
Finally, there's the issue of finality. The DA in the Skinner case says the victims' loved ones deserve it, and we agree.
But the appearance of finality can be illusory. Rape victims involved in 20 Dallas County DNA exoneration cases know that. At one point, they thought they could go on with their lives knowing justice had been done, but it really hadn't been.
Opponents of Texas' 2001 law providing access to DNA said the courts already had what they needed to deal with potential cases of miscarriage of justices, a position that looks silly today.
It's possible that Skinner is as guilty as the West Texas sky is blue. Texas courts say they're sure of it. But they don't have all the facts, and there's no excuse not to have them."
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THE SKINNER CASE: (SYNOPSIS);
The Skinner case
"The crime: Twila Busby, 40, was beaten to death in 1993, and her grown sons Elwin Caler and Randy Busby were stabbed to death, in her Pampa home.
Incrimination: Her boyfriend, Hank Skinner, 31, a petty criminal, had blood on his shirt the next morning and was charged with capital murder.
Defense: His attorney said he had consumed too much alcohol and drugs to do the killings, and pointed to another possible suspect. The defense declined to test all evidence for DNA.
Untested evidence: Appellate attorneys seek DNA tests on bloody knives, bloody dishtowel and bloody jacket; Ms. Busby's fingernail clippings and a vaginal swab.
Court of Criminal Appeals on denying DNA tests: "... The interests of justice do not require testing when defense counsel has already declined to request testing as a matter of reasonable trial strategy."
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The story can be found at:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/editorials/stories/DN-skinner_1013edi.State.Edition1.fb23b1.html
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be accessed at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith
For a breakdown of some of the cases, issues and controversies this Blog is currently following, please turn to:
http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=120008354894645705&postID=8369513443994476774
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;
