"State Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, said the new law, which passed the state Legislature with bipartisan margins, will help prisoners and criminal defense attorneys verify any claims of innocence.
“The new law was intended to make advanced DNA testing available in all cases where it can aid the truth-seeking process, and Skinner’s case falls squarely within that category,” Ellis said in a statement..
Skinner’s attorneys also asked the court to withdraw or postpone by at least 90 days their client’s Nov. 9 execution date, which the court imposed in July at Switzer’s behest.
Petitions for forensic DNA testing in post-conviction cases often raise “complex factual disputes” that cannot be properly addressed by the looming execution date, the petition said."
REPORTER BOBBY CERVANTES: AMARILLO GLOBE NEWS;
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BACKGROUND: "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 convicted killer Hank Skinner hope a new DNA testing law that took effect last week will force the 31st District Attorney to turn over crime scene evidence, according to a new motion filed Tuesday in Gray County," the Amarillo Globe News story by reporter Bobby Cervantes published on September 6, 2011 under the heading, "Skinner seeks DNA tests," begins.
"The petition cites major revisions to the state’s post-conviction DNA statute, which allows more prisoners to test biological evidence in criminal trials," the story continues.
"The untested evidence includes a man’s windbreaker with blood splatter and hair found next to Twila Busby’s body, two knives, a rape kit and bloody towels.
A Gray County jury convicted the Pampa man for the December 1993 triple slaying of Busby, his live-in girlfriend, and her two sons.
Skinner has maintained his innocence since his 1995 conviction, arguing he was incapacitated by a vodka and codeine overdose on the night of the murders.
Prosecutors have said Skinner had the chance to request DNA testing of any evidence before his trial in 1995, but Skinner’s trial attorney did not test the evidence for fear it would incriminate his client.
The Texas Attorney General’s office, which is representing Switzer in court, continued to review the petition Tuesday, spokesman Jerry Strickland said.
State and federal courts have denied a slew of petitions to test the DNA found at the crime scene. Skinner was set to die by lethal injection until the U.S. Supreme Court decided last year to hear his federal civil rights suit.
The high court stayed Skinner’s execution twice as it decided the case, which the justices in a 6-3 decision in March sent back to the U.S. District Court in Amarillo.
State Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, said the new law, which passed the state Legislature with bipartisan margins, will help prisoners and criminal defense attorneys verify any claims of innocence.
“The new law was intended to make advanced DNA testing available in all cases where it can aid the truth-seeking process, and Skinner’s case falls squarely within that category,” Ellis said in a statement.
Skinner’s attorneys also asked the court to withdraw or postpone by at least 90 days their client’s Nov. 9 execution date, which the court imposed in July at Switzer’s behest.
Petitions for forensic DNA testing in post-conviction cases often raise “complex factual disputes” that cannot be properly addressed by the looming execution date, the petition said.
“Resolving such thorny issues fairly and accurately under an artificial time deadline, like a schedule execution date, may well be impossible,” the motion states.
“At a minimum, rushing to decide such questions needlessly increases the risk of error and undermines public confidence in the reliability of the criminal justice system.”
The story can be found at:
http://amarillo.com/news/local-news/2011-09-06/skinner-seeks-dna-tests
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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;
