The CCA order in Skinner v. Texas is available in Adobe .pdf format.
Rob Owen, an attorney for Hank Skinner, issued the follwoing statement in response to the CCA stay:
"The Court of Criminal Appeals with its decision today, has ensured that Mr. Skinner's request for DNA testing will receive the thorough and serious consideration it deserves. We are grateful for the Court's action and look forward to the opportunity to make Mr. Skinner's case for DNA testing in that forum."
The AP report, "Texas court puts off execution due to legal change," by Michael Graczyk is via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Texas' highest criminal court gave a reprieve Monday to a convicted murderer who had been scheduled to be executed this week, saying it needs time to review changes to a state law that his attorneys contend clear the way for new DNA testing in his case.
Henry Watkins Skinner, 49, was scheduled to die on Wednesday for the New Year's Eve, 1993 slayings of his girlfriend and her two adult sons at their home in Pampa, a Texas Panhandle town about 55 miles northeast of Amarillo.
"We find that it would be prudent for this court to take the time to fully review the changes in the statute as they pertain to this case," the state's Court of Criminal Appeals said in a four-paragraph ruling.
Skinner, his legal team and capital punishment opponents had insisted prosecutors' opposition to additional DNA testing could lead to the execution of an innocent man. Skinner would have been the 13th inmate given lethal injection this year in Texas, which is the nation's busiest death penalty state.
Allan Turner posts, "Skinner execution on hold for review," at the Houston Chronicle.
In a brief ruling, court justices noted that Texas laws governing DNA testing of evidence have changed, but that the modified law never has been applied to Skinner's case.
"Because the DNA statute has changed and because some of those changes were because of this case, we find that it would be prudent for this court to take time to fully review the changes in the statute as they pertain to this case," the judges wrote.
Skinner, a one-time paralegal, was sentenced to die for the 1993 New Years Eve murder of his girlfriend and her two adult sons.
The petition for a stay was filed late last week after a state district court in Pampa denied his latest request to have items tested.
Earlier today, Skinner's lawyers petitioned Gov. Rick Perry to grant a 30-day stay so that the DNA testing could take place.
Skinner, 49, consistently has maintained that he was incapacitated by alcohol and codeine at the time of the killings. For more than a decade, he has sought DNA testing of bloody clothing found at the scene, knives, rape kit evidence and other items. Results of DNA tests on other items have been mixed.
In March 2010, the U. S. Supreme Court stayed Skinner's execution one hour before he was to be put to death in order to consider reviewing case. The high court ultimately ruled that Skinner could pursue DNA testing through a civil rights case.
"Court of Criminal Appeals Grants Hank Skinner Stay," by Brandi Grissom for the Texas Tribune.
The court in its order today said it wanted time to consider Skinner's request for DNA testing in light of the changes to post-conviction DNA testing law that legislators approved during the legislative session this year.
"Because the DNA statute has changed, and because some of those changes were because of this case, we find that it would be prudent for this Court to take time to fully review the changes in the statute as they pertain to this case," the court's order states.
Texas first adopted a post-conviction DNA testing law in 2001. The law has been changed three times since then, each time loosening restrictions on access to the tests.
The appeals court had previously denied Skinner's requests for testing, citing provisions in the law that allowed DNA testing only in cases where analysis was not done during the original trial because the technology did not exist or for some other reason that was not the fault of the defendant. Lawmakers repealed that part of the law this year.
"Texas court stays Wednesday execution as lawyers seek DNA tests," by Ashley Hayes and Bill Mears at CNN.
Skinner, now 49, has strongly denied any involvement in the crime and claims that the DNA analysis of untested evidence will not only show him innocent but help determine the real killer. He came within 45 minutes of execution in March 2010 before the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in and handed him a legal reprieve.
As another execution date loomed, his supporters ratcheted up the pressure on Texas officials to grant his request for DNA testing.
"Executing Mr. Skinner without testing all the relevant evidence would suggest official indifference to the possibility of error in this case and needlessly undermine public confidence in Texas's criminal justice system," former Texas Gov. Mark White and 16 other current and former Texas lawmakers, prosecutors and judges wrote in an October 27 letter to Gov. Rick Perry, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and Gray County District Attorney Lynn Switzer.
Owen requested a 30-day reprieve from Perry's office Monday afternoon, shortly before the appeals court issued its ruling, arguing that "substantial new evidence" has come to light since his trial to support Skinner's claim of innocence.
"Physical evidence from the crime scene, witness accounts and expert testimony all demonstrate that Mr. Skinner was so severely impaired at the time of the murders as a result of his extreme intoxication from drugs and alcohol that he would have lacked the physical and mental coordination to perform even simple tasks, let alone commit these three murders," Owen wrote. DNA tests "could resolve once and for all longstanding and troubling questions about the reliability of the verdict in his case," he added.
And in a letter to the Dallas Morning News published Sunday, the foreman of the jury that sentenced Skinner to death urged his execution be stayed "until all of the uncertainty is resolved."
"Since the trial, I and many of my fellow jurors have grown increasingly concerned that key pieces of DNA evidence from the crime scene remain untested," the foreman, Danny Stewart, wrote. "Either the tests confirm Skinner's guilt or prove his innocence and prevent the state from making an irreversible mistake. There is simply no downside."
"Texas court postpones execution pending DNA appeal," by Molly Hennessy-Fiske for the Los Angeles Times.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Monday delayed the scheduled Wednesday execution of Henry "Hank" Skinner, 49, while it examines how changes in state law concerning DNA test requests apply to his case.
And:
Prosecutors have argued against the new tests, saying courts have already ruled against Skinner and that he is stalling.
Last week, Texas Judge Steven R. Emmert was the latest to deny Skinner's request, without explaining why.
In the wake of that ruling, Skinner's supporters gathered more than 120,000 signatures on an online petition urging Gov. Rick Perry to stay the execution to allow for the DNA testing, and on Monday, Skinner's lawyers again appealed to Perry to stay the execution. Skinner also has an appeal pending in federal court.
Earlier coverage of Hank Skinner's case begins at the link.
The Texas Legislature's 2011 changes to post-conviction access to DNA testing were contained in House Bill 1573, authored by Rep. Pete Gallego and sponsored in the Senate by Sen. John Carona. Governor Perry signed the measure into law.
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