"DNA testing in capital cases should be routine; Texas should end the fight to stop tests of crime scene evidence," is the San Antonio Express-News editorial. It appeared in the Sunday edition.
Before the state carries out the ultimate sanction for capital crimes, every effort should be made to ensure that all the evidence in a death penalty case has been examined. Any reasonable prospect of exoneration must be considered. To execute an innocent individual would be, after all, a crime in itself.
All this seems like it should be self-evident in a modern system of justice. But the state of Texas has perplexingly fought to prevent a Texas death row inmate from obtaining DNA evidence that, one way or another, would likely settle his case.
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the inmate — Henry “Hank” Skinner — could sue a prosecutor under federal civil rights law to have crime scene evidence from the 1993 murders of his girlfriend and her two adult sons tested for DNA.
The high court ruling didn't offer an opinion about whether Skinner should prevail in his suit. But rather than continue to litigate a case that undermines confidence in the justice system, the state should simply get on with the tests.
The largely circumstantial case against Skinner has many holes in it and has drawn national criticism. The state's star witness recanted her story, claiming prosecutors intimidated her.
And:
Over the past decade, advances in DNA testing have exonerated 43 individuals in Texas of serious crimes, including murder. Prosecutors sometimes get overzealous. Judges and juries sometimes make mistakes.
Justice isn't served by putting innocent people behind bars ... or on death row. Testing for DNA evidence should be routine in death penalty cases. It is unconscionable that the state would fight Skinner or anyone else to prevent such testing.
Earlier coverage of Hank Skinner's case begins at the link. The Supreme Court opinion in Skinner v. Switzer is in Adobe .pdf format.
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