Today's Wichita Falls Times Record News contains the editorial, "Beyond the shadow of doubt."
Skinner has long since declared his innocence — as doomed convicts typically do — and has requested that additional DNA testing be performed that could exonerate him. His lawyers, according to The Associated Press, want testing on several pieces of evidence gathered at the time of Busby’s autopsy, including vaginal swabs, fingernail clippings, a knife, a jacket found next to her body and any hairs not destroyed during previous testing. Initially, the AP reported, only hair had been tested, and the DNA findings were inconclusive.
Inconclusive should be enough to give officials pause.
Skinner’s appearance at the time of the murder must have been hard for a jury to forget. He was found splattered with the blood of at least two of the victims, hiding in the closet of a friend. That, a jury may suppose, aren’t the actions of an innocent man. Skinner was reportedly high on vodka and codeine at the time of the slaying, passed out on a couch and unable to club Busby 14 times.
But he was there.
Is he guilty, though?
Before Texas executes someone, we better be for darn sure.
At every step of his appeals process, courts have ruled against his request for additional DNA testing, with prosecutors long ago arguing he wasn’t entitled to testing of evidence not analyzed before his trial.
Not entitled to be for darn sure?
Skinner may very well be guilty of this brutal murder, and his execution could give the Busby family the closure many families need. They were climbing the steps leading up to the Huntsville, Texas, death chamber to witness the execution when the Supreme Court decision came down.
Then again, he may only be guilty of being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Either way, what does the state of Texas have to lose?
If the testing confirms the conviction, he’ll face his fate.
If the testing exonerates him, we would have come inexcusably close to killing an innocent man.
In New York, the Watertown Daily News editorial is, "Death penalty: A reason for DNA testing."
The Supreme Court made the right decision in blocking the execution of a Texas man who has been refused DNA testing that could prove his innocence.
And:
"While I understand that Mr. Skinner was convicted of a brutal triple murder, remember that 11 other people on Texas' death row have been convicted of brutal murders over the years before they were exonerated," wrote Houston state Sen. Rodney Ellis in support of a stay.
Nationally, DNA testing has led to the reversal of hundreds of convictions, including inmates on death row. The same day the Supreme Court stepped into the Skinner case, a Broward County, Fla., man was exonerated of rape and murder after spending 26 years — more than half his life — in prison.
The high court's order does not mean it will take up the case, but the delay gives Texas authorities the time to reconsider their arbitrary refusal to give Skinner the chance he is asking for to prove his innocence.
Earlier coverage begins with this post; next, additional news coverage of the stay.
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