The Texas Tribune reports, "Hank Skinner Seeks DNA Testing Under New Law," written by Brandi Grissom.
Lawyers for death row inmate Hank Skinner filed a motion Friday seeking DNA testing under a new Texas law that expands access to such testing. And they have asked the state to withdraw the Nov. 9 execution date set for Skinner.
“Texas is wrong to seek Hank Skinner’s execution without allowing for DNA testing," 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 state should be leading the search for truth, instead of continuing to waste taxpayer dollars on its 11-year-long campaign to block testing of critically important scientific evidence.”
And:
Last year, though, less than an hour before he was scheduled to be executed, the U.S. Supreme Court stayed Skinner's punishment. The high court sent the case back to the federal district court to decide whether Skinner is entitled to additional DNA testing. A decision is expected in the coming months on whether Texas courts arbitrarily and unconstitutionally applied the state's 2001 post-conviction DNA testing law.
During the legislative session this year, though, lawmakers approved a modification to that law, allowing more access to post-conviction 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 This year, lawmakers repealed those restrictions. As of Sept. 1, post-conviction testing is available for DNA evidence not previously analyzed, and for DNA evidence that was tested but that can be re-examined with newer technology. “The new law was intended to make advanced DNA testing available in all cases where it can aid the truth-seeking process, and Skinner's case falls squarely within that category,” said state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, who helped write the law.
"Skinner seeks DNA tests," by Bobby Cervantes in the Amarillo Globe-News.
Attorneys for convicted killer Hank Skinner hope a new DNA testing law that took effect last week will force the 31st District Attorney to turn over crime scene evidence, according to a new motion filed Tuesday in Gray County.
The petition cites major revisions to the state’s post-conviction DNA statute, which allows more prisoners to test biological evidence in criminal trials.
The untested evidence includes a man’s windbreaker with blood splatter and hair found next to Twila Busby’s body, two knives, a rape kit and bloody towels.
A Gray County jury convicted the Pampa man for the December 1993 triple slaying of Busby, his live-in girlfriend, and her two sons.
Skinner has maintained his innocence since his 1995 conviction, arguing he was incapacitated by a vodka and codeine overdose on the night of the murders.
"DNA tests sought," by Amanda Buck for the Martinsville Bulletin.
Three motions were filed Tuesday in state district court in Gray County, Texas, the release said. They seek to have the items tested under a new Texas law that took effect Sept. 1, according to the release and copies of the motions provided by Skinner’s attorneys.
The new law “intends to ensure that procedural barriers do not prevent prisoners from testing biological evidence that was not previously tested or could be subjected to newer testing,” the release said.
Another motion seeks to have the Nov. 9 execution date withdrawn to allow time for the DNA testing to be done.
That is not the first execution date for Skinner, who came within an hour of being put to death in March 2010 when the U.S. Supreme Court halted the sentence before deciding to hear his case.
The high court ruled this year that Skinner had the right to sue the Texas district attorney prosecuting his case under federal civil rights law for refusing to allow Skinner access to evidence for DNA testing. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg cautioned that allowing Skinner to sue is not the same thing as saying he should win his suit.
That lawsuit is pending in federal district court in Amarillo, Texas.
Earlier coverage of Hank Skinner's case - with the latest pleadings - begins at the link.
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