Brandi Grissom writes, "Texas Again Sets Skinner Execution Date," for the Texas Tribune, today.
For the fourth time, the state of Texas is scheduled to execute death row inmate Hank Skinner for the 1993 murders of his live-in girlfriend and her two sons, potentially quashing his ability to request DNA testing under a new state law.
Gray County District Attorney Lynn Switzer asked a state district judge last month to grant an order setting an execution for Nov. 9, even as Skinner awaits a federal court ruling on whether prosecutors must turn over DNA evidence for testing that he says will prove his innocence. Skinner’s lawyers call the move a pressure tactic that makes it tougher for the court to adequately weigh the matter.
“No one's interests will be served by rushing to a decision under the pressure of a looming execution,” Rob Owen, one of Skinner’s lawyers and director of the University of Texas School of Law's Capital Punishment Clinic, said in a statement.
The execution date also means that Skinner’s lawyers must hurry to try to take advantage of a new state law that allows increased access to post-conviction DNA testing. In 2001, legislators passed a law allowing those who had already been convicted to ask for DNA testing. The original legislation allowed testing only in cases in which DNA tests were not conducted during the original trial because the technology was unavailable or for some other reason that was not the fault of the defendant. This year, lawmakers repealed those restrictions. Beginning Sept. 1, post-conviction testing will be available for DNA evidence not previously analyzed, and for DNA evidence that was tested but that can be re-examined with updated technology.
And:
“It would be logical and sensible for the state to hold off setting another execution date until Skinner’s legal claims can all be heard in a reasonable fashion,” said Doug Robinson, one of Skinner’s lawyers. “It makes everything just so much more difficult, certainly for Skinner’s lawyers, and I would imagine for the federal courts."
Meanwhile, Robinson said, it also means that Skinner’s lawyers must quickly decide whether to file another request in state court for DNA testing based on the new post-conviction DNA testing law that takes effect next month. If lawyers file the request on Sept. 1, the day the law takes effect, it will give the courts only two months to issue a ruling before the execution date, practically lightning speed in death row litigation terms. “The two previous motions we filed took two to three years for the state courts to rule on,” Robinson said.
Which makes it very likely, Robinson said, that Skinner and his lawyers will be asking the courts to grant another stay of execution.
Earlier coverage of Hank Skinner's quest for DNA testing begins at the link. More on Skinner v. Switzer, via Oyez.
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