I have to single out SCOTUS Blog for its outstanding coverage of Skinner, "Special feature: Texas death row DNA case (Part 3)." All three parts are by Mary A. Fischer.
It seems that in the pursuit of truth, like real estate, location is everything. Had convicted murderer Henry Skinner requested post-conviction DNA testing in Dallas instead of Pampa, where the triple homicide occurred, the Supreme Court would not be hearing arguments in Skinner v Switzer this Wednesday — or any other time.
While Pampa’s District Attorney Lynn Switzer decided to “stand firm” and deny access to the Skinner evidence, 370 miles away, in Dallas, fellow chief prosecutor Craig Watkins, takes an opposite stance. “If I was faced with that decision, it would be an easy one,” he told me recently. “Without a doubt, I would test all the evidence. Whether Mr. Skinner waived his right to test the evidence at his trial is irrelevant. Whether justice has been served is what’s relevant.”
Among prosecutors in Texas — and the rest of the country — Watkins is a rare breed. Elected in 2006, he created the country’s first convictions integrity unit that relies on DNA testing denied by previous prosecutors. The results so far: fourteen innocent Dallas County men have been released from prison.
Many believe that prosecutors in Gray County, where Pampa is located, are “holdouts.” “The extreme position taken by the prosecutors in Gray County is not one that we encounter very often in 2010 as the vast majority of them readily agree to perform DNA testing in capital cases,” says Nina Morrison, a staff attorney for New York’s Innocence Project who worked on Skinner’s court briefs. “That Mr. Skinner has had to battle for a simple DNA test for over 15 years and come within 45 minutes of being executed without receiving one, makes this case a real outlier.”
To understand why Pampa prosecutors are “really dug in on Skinner,” says retired Austin capital defense attorney Roy Greenwood, “you have to know the history that is mixed up with politics, money and corruption.”
It starts with Harold Comer. Before he defended Hank Skinner in 1995 for the murders of Twila Busby and her two sons, he prosecuted him for car theft and assault. Comer was the district attorney in Pampa from 1988 to 1992, when he resigned–and was later suspended by the Texas State Bar–after admitting that he improperly borrowed $10,000 from a drug seizure fund.
Part 1 and Part 2 of Fisher's report are at the links. Earlier coverage begins with the preceding post.
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