News Coverage of the Skinner Reprieve Request

"Skinner Asks Perry for Reprieve," is the title of Brandi Grissom's Texas Tribune post.  The letter from Skinner's lawyers to Governor Perry and other documents are at the link.

Lawyers for death row inmate Hank Skinner sent Gov. Rick Perry a letter yesterday asking him for a 30-day reprieve from Skinner's scheduled March 24 execution. The lawyers also asked Perry to order DNA testing on evidence that Skinner says could prove his innocence.

Skinner was sentenced to death for the 1993 murder of his live-in girlfriend, Twila Busby, and her two mentally disabled adult sons. But Skinner has vehemently asserted his innocence. He claims that DNA evidence from the crime scene, including material from two knives, a rape kit, Busby's fingernail clippings and a man's windbreaker, could show that another person committed the slaughter. But Texas courts have denied the testing, asserting that Skinner had the chance at his original trial in 1995 to have that DNA checked.

As Skinner's execution date approaches, his lawyers are exhausting every opportunity to get the DNA tested. In addition to the letter to Perry, they have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and have filed renewed pleadings with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

At the Dallas Morning News Death Penalty blog, Michael Landauer posts, "Making the case for DNA testing in the Hank Skinner case."  Landauer has also posted a link to the letter.

If you've wondered whether DNA testing would really make a difference in the Hank Skinner case -- of if it's just a desperate plea to save the man's life -- you should really read this letter prepared by his lawyers. It explains in detail why DNA testing would provide new evidence that the jury never had a chance to consider.

This letter is written to Rick Perry in an effort to gain a 30-day reprieve. To me, the most compelling argument is this:

As the foregoing review of the evidence shows, Mr. Skinner is not the person who should have been convicted of the murders of Twila Busby and her sons. Equally disturbing, however, there is DNA evidence in this case that has never been tested. That evidence, if tested, could--and Mr. Skinner adamantly maintains, would--establish his innocence.

Earlier coverage begins with the preceding post.