RODGER JONES: DALLAS 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......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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"The best thing to happen for Hank Skinner's legal team came in August, with Rick Perry's decision to enter the hunt for the GOP presidential nomination," the Dallas News commentary by editorial writer Rodger Jones published on November 4, 2011 under the heading, "Prediction: Politics will be Hank Skinner's lifeline," begins.
"To me, that multiplied the odds in favor of Skinner winning the fight to get DNA testing on evidence in a triple murder he was convicted for in 1995. He's now got politics and public perception on his side," the commentary continues.
"With Skinner set for execution on Wednesday, this is playing out like a Hollywood script: Skinner lost a round in the trial court in Gray County yesterday. The judge ruled against the argument that Skinner should benefit from a new law that improves access to DNA tests on untested evidence or evidence never tested with the latest techniques. (Our editorial this morning gave a rundown of those items in Skinner's case.)
Now comes the politics. The matter will end up with the Court of Criminal Appeals and then, potentially, with Perry. And I don't think either wants to live with the image of a person going to his death when the labs haven't taken a look at all the physical evidence in the case.
The Court of Criminal Appeals is elected. The judges are not impervious to politics. They will have a greater sensitivity than the trial court to the reasons that the Legislature passed legislation this year improving a defendant's access to DNA tests. The backdrop is shaken confidence in the justice system as the list of exonerations grows.
Yes, Skinner may be gaming the system to buy time, as the vigilant Dudley Sharp, a pro-death penalty commentator, suggested in the American-Statesman today.
Yet the judges -- and Perry, ultimately -- will be dealing with the problem of the succinct counterargument, as put here by a Chicago journalism professor whose students took up the Skinner matter long ago:
Texas officials argue that Skinner had plenty of time to ask for the tests -- before his trial in 1995. Now it's too late, they say.Seriously? When is it ever too late to learn the truth? If Skinner is guilty, the tests should prove it. If he's innocent, the tests should prevent Texas from making a fatal mistake.
The comeback on this is that the courts should not tolerate mischief-making, if that's what Skinner is up to, because it sets bad precedent.
If that's what the court ends up deciding, Perry has a huge political problem. He could end up looking like the ultimate yahoo governor (even worse than his New Hampshire YouTube moment) if Texas executes Skinner next week. He doesn't want that, just like George W. Bush didn't want that in the Ricky McGinn case during the 2000 presidential election.
The governor may, at his discretion, grant one 30-day reprieve to a condemned prisoner, and that's what Bush did in the McGinn case so he could get DNA tests.
It was the only move Bush had in the political playbook. It gained McGinn a few months before the results failed to clear him. McGinn ended up in the executioner's chamber just the same, and Bush ended up looking like a more reasonable governor.
The political playbook is the same today. Rick Perry, with a record 237 executions on his watch, has a harder way to go than Bush did in defending Texas justice. The exonerations have all unfolded on his watch. He's stuck with that image.
I say Skinner survives past next Wednesday's execution date."The post can be found at:
http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/11/prediction-poli.html
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 found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;
