"State to get Skinner evidence for DNA testing," is the title of Allan Turner's report in today's Houston Chronicle. The items for DNA testing are due to be turned over to a DPS lab, today.
Henry Skinner is a small man with a crooked nose, acid tongue and keen mind. Convicted of fatally pummeling his lover with an ax handle and stabbing her adult sons in a 1993 New Year's Eve Texas Panhandle rampage, he has used his 17 years on death row to assail Texas' criminal justice system as "cunning and deceptive."
In a case that has become an international anti-death penalty cause célèbre, Skinner since 2001 has battled to obtain DNA testing of items he believes will clear him of the Pampa killings of Twila Busby and her sons, Randy and Elwin.
Skinner's campaign for more testing twice has prompted courts to stay his scheduled executions. His quest has been complicated by his first lawyer's decision to abandon DNA testing after examination of clothing worn by Skinner on the night of the killings revealed traces of the victims' blood.
And:
Even as Skinner's lawyers and supporters breathed a sigh of relief, though, it once again appeared the victory may only be partial. State lawyers admit that, after a thorough search, they cannot find the windbreaker, which Skinner attorney Rob Owen called a key piece of evidence.
Owen, a University of Texas law professor currently teaching at Northwestern University Law School, said that, based on stain patterns, a forensic expert for Skinner believes the jacket likely had been worn by the killer.
Although the jacket was not introduced as evidence at Skinner's trial, legal experts said the state should have preserved the garment pending the case's final resolution. "These issues come up all the time, sometimes 10 or 15 years later," said South Texas College of Law professor Ken Williams. "It's the responsibility of the state ... to put it away in a safe somewhere."
Said Skinner: "The state has a lot of explaining to do. ...That jacket is key to everything."
Owen said the importance of the jacket may grow if tests on other items prove "less illuminating."
"The jacket appeared to have sweat stains, human hairs," Owen said. "It was a rich source of DNA that could have been tested."
Earlier coverage of the Hank Skinner case begins at the link.
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