Skinner to get his DNA tests in Texas

Here is the latest Texas news from The Associated Press
KRGV

State backs DNA testing for death row inmate Hank Skinner
LubbockOnline.com

DNA testing allowed for Texas death row inmate
Kansas City Star

New in the Texas Tribune:
Texas Tribune

Death row inmate to get DNA testing after Texas attorney general reverses ...
Washington Post

Skinner Will Get DNA Testing
Austin Chronicle (blog)

There are editorials this morning in the Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Amarillo Globe-News supporting the Texas Attorney General's revised position to test all the evidence in the Skinner case.

"DNA tests in Skinner case," is the Dallas Morning News editorial.

It took them awhile over at the Texas attorney general’s office, but they got the point.

Back in May, attorneys for the AG were hard at work defending the death sentence of inmate Hank Skinner of West Texas, arguing in court once again that it was a waste of time to allow DNA tests on a trove of items from the crime scene.

Enter Judge Michael Keasler, of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, who reduced the matter to common sense.

“You really ought to be absolutely sure before you strap a person down and kill him,” Keasler told lawyers for the state.

Point made. The AG’s office announced a new position in the Skinner case Friday with words familiar to any of us who have found ourselves defending the indefensible.

“Upon further consideration …,” the state’s lawyers wrote in a new brief, which went on to drop the state’s opposition to new DNA tests.

The AG’s lawyers might have used language as plain as Keasler’s. Maybe something like this:

“Sorry, judge. What were we thinking? We get it. We get it that executing someone would be madness if we didn’t erase as much doubt as possible with DNA tests. We didn’t want to kowtow to a guy we think is trying to manipulate the system, but we’ll suck it up. We know the public is looking over our shoulder on these things, because of all those DNA exonerations, and to deny that possibility here — however slight — would be a public relations nightmare. So let’s go and schedule those tests.”

"Texas AG relents on Death Row inmate DNA tests," in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

At least we know this much: Given enough time, the Texas attorney general's office can read handwriting on the wall.

After getting an earful from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals during a May hearing, AG Greg Abbott's office has done an abrupt about-face and ended its years of objection to DNA testing for Death Row inmate Hank Skinner.

And:

Remember that this is an all-Republican court not known for broadly interpreting the law to favor inmates' appeals.

The state: If inmates can seek testing this late after a conviction, prosecutors will have to test everything before trial to avoid grounds for later appeals.

Judge Michael Keasler: "Prosecutors should be testing everything anyway."

The state: A 2001 law on post-conviction DNA testing was limited to cases in which the DNA material or technology was available at the time of a trial.

The court: The Legislature in 2011 expanded the law specifically to include cases like Skinner's.

The state: Other evidence against Skinner is overwhelming.

Judge Elsa Alcala: It's "not overwhelming; it's circumstantial."

The state: Skinner is frivolously trying to delay his execution.

Alcala: "If you had tested this upon their first DNA motion 10 years ago, we would have had results 10 years ago. Under your theory, they would have showed Skinner's guilt, and he would have been executed nine years ago."

"Skinner gets wish: DNA under scope," is the Amarillo Globe-News editorial written by John Kanelis.

Still, Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office made the right call in ordering the DNA tests, but not because of any belief here that they will exonerate Hank Skinner.

The AG made the right call because the state must be certain it has ironclad evidence to execute someone for a capital crime.

“You really ought to be absolutely sure before you strap a person down and kill him,” said Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Mike Keasler in a hearing this past month.

David Protess posts, "Texas Finally Agrees to DNA Testing for Condemned Man. What Took So Long?" at Huffiington Post.  He's President of the Chicago Innocence Project.  While at Northwestern University, Protess an his journalism students examined Skinner's case extensively.

For more than 11 years -- 3,888 days, to be exact -- Texas death row prisoner Henry "Hank" Skinner has been asking the courts for DNA tests that he believes can prove his innocence.

Since Oct. 9, 2001, when Skinner's lawyers filed their first motion for DNA testing, Texas lawmen have stood in the way, saying Skinner is guilty and his request is simply a stalling tactic.

Turns out the lawmen were stalling.

On Friday, they finally caved after spending this century fighting the tests in the Texas courts, the federal district and appellate courts, the U.S. Supreme Court and back again in both federal and state courts -- wasting taxpayers' dollars when Skinner's legal team had long ago promised to pay for the tests.

And:

The battle over DNA began, innocently enough, as a class project for my investigative reporting students at Northwestern University in 2000. The assignment: Review all the documents in the case, interview Skinner on death row and head to the Panhandle to interview key witnesses. It quickly became complicated for the student-sleuths when they discovered reports on the untested evidence that -- if properly preserved -- should be rich with DNA. Next, they wanted to know whether Skinner would agree to the tests.

Skinner didn't hesitate: He told the students that he always wanted the tests, but unwisely heeded the advice of his trial lawyer -- the former D.A. of that county. He would gladly supply whatever samples were needed to finally do the tests.

A few days later, in the Panhandle, the State's star witness recanted her trial testimony in an audio-taped interview with the students, saying the D.A. who prosecuted Skinner had pressured her to lie. They also interviewed witnesses who were sure the female victim's uncle had committed the crime. Most damning: A witness swore that the jacket found next to the woman's body belonged to her uncle.

Back on campus, we planned the release of the students' findings, which eventually were reported in the spring of 2000 on the AP wires and NBC News. That led to a memorable confrontation on Court TV between the D.A. and me in which host Nancy Grace shamed him into promising tests on the remaining evidence.

But when several of results excluded Skinner, the D.A. backed off. Fearful of what the forensics would turn up on the murder weapons, the hairs and the jacket, he unilaterally halted the testing. That's when Skinner's lawyers filed suit in 2001 to complete what the D.A. had started. The two D.A.s who succeeded him have maintained the same no-test policy, as did the Texas attorney general -- until three days ago.

Also in the Amarillo Globe-News, reporter Bobby Cervantes writes, "Decade of requests for DNA testing may make difference for Skinner."

Hank Skinner, the convicted triple murderer from Pampa, had to wait nearly 10 years before state attorneys agreed Friday to test crime-scene DNA he said will clear him. But the wait may make all the difference as the appeal moves forward.

John Raley, a Dallas attorney who has successfully argued for additional DNA testing in murder cases, said time has ultimately helped prisoners seeking the tests, which were largely in their infancy when Gray County prosecutors tried Skinner’s case.

And:

Franklin McDonough, the incoming 31st District Attorney, said he only had heard about Friday’s developments through media reports.

“At this point, it’s in the AG’s hands, and it’s premature to make statements about what may happen,” he said.

McDonough will replace Lynn Switzer, the Pampa-based district attorney who has directed all inquiries about the case to Austin. State attorneys there have handled the case’s appeals for Switzer’s office.

McDonough defeated 31st Assistant District Attorney Jason Ferguson in the Republican primary May 29. He will take office in January, since no Democratic candidate filed to run for the seat.

Recent changes to the state’s post-conviction DNA testing law have clarified the cases in which the tests must be granted. The prisoner’s attorney must show that the evidence was never previously tested, or if it was tested before, that newer techniques may provide a more accurate result.

Earlier coverage of Hank Skinner's case begins at the link.

Key Evidence Vanishes in Condemned Man's Case: Let's Help Texas Find It

It is a faded beige windbreaker with snap buttons down the front, an article of clothing you wouldn't notice if you passed someone wearing it on the street.

But this windbreaker was anything but ordinary. It was discovered next to Twila Busby's body, stained with blood and sweat, and recovered by police in the Pampa, Texas home where Busby and her adult sons were slain on New Year's Eve in 1993.

And it did not belong to the murder victims or Henry "Hank" Skinner, who was convicted of the triple homicide and sentenced to death.

So whose DNA is on that windbreaker? We may never know because Texas lawmen, after spending more than a decade fighting DNA testing in the Skinner case before relenting two weeks ago, made a stunning admission on Tuesday: They lost the windbreaker.

Forty items of evidence will be tested in the coming weeks. But the windbreaker, most important among them, has vanished. Poof.

As I have reported, testing the windbreaker provided Skinner -- who once came within 47 minutes of execution -- with the best chance to prove his innocence. That's because witnesses have said it belonged to Twila's uncle, the late Robert Donnell, who was seen harassing her at a New Year's party before the murders -- and scrubbing his pick-up truck from top to bottom the next morning.

"Mr. Skinner has insisted that this jacket should be tested because it may have been worn by the assailant," said attorney Rob Owen in a statement. "It is beyond reasonable dispute that DNA testing on this jacket is critically important to the reliable determination of guilt in this case," Owen added. "It is difficult to understand how the State has managed to maintain custody of items as small as fingernail clippings, while apparently losing something as large as a man's windbreaker jacket."

It's also a mystery to Gary Noblett, a 41-year law enforcement veteran who now manages the Pampa police department's evidence. Noblett told the Austin Chronicle that everything the police stored was moved to the court for Skinner's trial. After the conviction, the evidence was returned to the county, but "somehow or another" the windbreaker never made it back. "No one's ever been able to find that thing," Noblett said.

Somehow or another you can't find the dang evidence? C'mon, you gotta be more creative than that. We're talking about DNA-rich evidence found two feet from a dead body in a capital murder case.

So where's the windbreaker? As a service to law enforcement, I'll modestly propose a few places where they might look.

•The Pampa cleaners over on Hobart St. that advertises "cheap dry cleaning." Perhaps the Pampa police saved the taxpayers money while getting rid of those unsightly stains.
•Mann Ranch near Amarillo. The burial site of District Attorney John Mann, who selectively used DNA to convict Skinner, then later discovered some DNA tests excluded him, prompting Mann to halt further testing. Given Mann's obsession with burying evidence, check the coffin.
•The Texas prison that is home to Rick Roach, Mann's successor as district attorney. Roach is now serving an 18-year sentence for firearms and drug abuse. At the same time he was injecting meth in the D.A.'s office, Roach was battling Skinner's request to resume the DNA testing. Could Roach have brought the bloodied jacket with him to cultivate a tough-guy image with his cellmates?
•The Donnell residence. Perhaps it's hanging in a closet of the house where Robert Donnell once lived, having been graciously returned from the crime scene by cops who knew exactly where it came from.
•Goodwill Industries in Pampa. It's also on Hobart St. near the dry cleaners, allowing them to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. The windbreaker might have been donated to charity after Texas lawmen tried unsuccessfully to sell it on eBay.
Readers: Post your suggestions. The only senseless idea would be to double-check the evidence locker where, you know, they store evidence. Don't bother. It's too obvious. That would be like checking the silverware drawer for, you know, silverware.

Texas prosecutors would say, of course, that the windbreaker is irrelevant, that Skinner is a guilty man who is desperately trying to delay his inevitable execution. They've pointed out that Skinner was in the home at the time of the crime and found with a cut hand and blood from the victims on his clothing. They've rejected the evidence by a witness and two toxicologists that Skinner was unconscious from ingesting alcohol and prescription meds, that the cut hand resulted from falling on broken glass when he awoke and the bloodied clothing came from trying to revive the victims. He's now gaming the system, they've said, and deserves to die.

But Skinner has been fighting for DNA tests for more than a decade, saying he believes they can prove his innocence -- and the guilt of another man. That would bring justice to this case and comfort to the family members of the murder victims. Now part of Skinner's hope, like the windbreaker, is gone.

If it's not in any of the places I suggested, maybe someone's wearing it who isn't picky about fashion. Here is a crime scene photo of the missing windbreaker. Anyone seen it? If so, contact Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott.

Just don't expect a reward for your trouble.

The University of Michigan Law School and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law have compiled the nation’s first comprehensive registry of exonerations in the United States. It reveals that in the past 23 years, more than 2,000 people in the United States have been wrongfully convicted of a crime and later exonerated.

The registry is housed at the website exonerationregistry.org, where you can also find a full report on the known exonerations to date and detailed information on 891 of the 2,000 exonerations. Samuel Gross, editor of the report notes that, “there are many more that we haven't found."

Researchers hope the registry will allow them to learn about more exonerations that have not yet been identified and help the public learn more about how false convictions happen, how they can be prevented, and how to correct them after they do occur. The exoneration database comes on the heels of The Wrong Carlos - a groundbreaking study of the questionable conviction and execution of Carlos DeLuna.

"What this shows is that the criminal justice system makes mistakes, and they are more common than people think," added Gross. "It is not the rule, but we won't learn to get better unless we pay attention to these cases."

French TV interview with her

Global Indymedia radio has interviewed David Protess of the Chicago Innocence Project about the case. The conversation makes 66.78 MB, so it takes quite a while to download.

"[Willie Mae] was questioning him about what happened to Twila and her boys. He told her that if she didn't shut up and quit talking to him about it... that she would end up the same way that they did... He would kill her like he killed them."

Click here

Shocking!There is so many miscarriages of justice before me right now,I am speechless.
Being an Australian I have not seen the death penalty in practice in my life time so I find it appalling that the state can convict a man of capital punishment on circumstantial evidence.
Shouldn't 100% guilt be proven before capital punishment is even brought in to the picture? And if guilt can not be proven 100% then the death penalty should never be an option to the state!

http://www.examiner.com/article/texas-executes-first-man-with-only-one-d...