If you were moved by the plight of Troy Davis, wait until you hear what is happening to Hank Skinner.
Skinner, 49, has been on death row in Texas since 1995 for the murders of his girlfriend and her two adult sons in their Panhandle home. He has steadfastly professed his innocence. In recent years, the State's star witness recanted her testimony to my journalism students and others, and several witnesses told the students that the female victim's uncle (now deceased) was the likely killer.
And, there is DNA. Some DNA tests, including on a trail of blood leading from the home, excluded Skinner. Other tests placed Skinner at the scene. (He was a frequent visitor to the home and claims he passed out the night of the crime from a combination of codeine and alcohol. A witness and two experts back his story.)
But most stunning is the physical evidence that has never been tested. The rape kit was not tested. The murder weapons were not tested. Several hairs clutched in the female victim's hand were not tested. A distinctive windbreaker strongly resembling the uncle's found two feet from her body and covered in blood? Not tested.
Since 2000, Skinner has repeatedly asked the local D.A. and the courts to order tests on the remaining evidence, confident they would prove his innocence. Each time, his plea has been denied on the grounds that he did not make the request before his trial. So, on March 24, 2010, Texas planned to execute Skinner while the evidence sat in a storage locker controlled by the current D.A., Lynn Switzer.
Less than an hour before the execution, Skinner's fortune changed -- for the time being. While munching on his last meal, he learned from his lawyer that the U.S. Supreme Court had issued a temporary stay. Prison guards abruptly escorted Skinner from his holding cell outside the execution chamber in Huntsville to his cell on death row in Livingston.
A few weeks later, the Court agreed to hear the case before another attempt could be made on his life. Finally, in a landmark decision earlier this year, the justices ruled 6-3 that Skinner had the right, under federal civil rights law, to sue D.A. Switzer to seek access to the remaining physical evidence for possible DNA testing.
As a federal magistrate in Texas considered the lawsuit that quickly followed, Skinner had another temporary stroke of good fortune. In May, the Texas legislature overwhelmingly passed a bill guaranteeing the right to post-conviction DNA testing, and in June Gov. Rick Perry signed it into law. The bill's sponsor publicly said that it was designed for cases like Skinner's and in memory of another prisoner, Tim Cole, who tragically died behind bars before DNA tests proved his innocence.
Suddenly, Skinner had two chances for justice: the federal lawsuit against the D.A. to gain access to the physical evidence in his case, and a new state law assuring the tests.
What happened next defies imagination. A Texas judge, days before the new statute went into effect and the DNA motion was filed, set another execution date for Skinner: November 9th. That's right. Skinner is scheduled to die in a month -- while two judges continue to contemplate whether he can test the evidence that might clear him.
Under other circumstances, the courts would issue a stay of execution and allow both civil actions -- one authorized by the highest court in the land, the other by the state legislature -- to move forward. Unfortunately for Skinner, however, the U.S. magistrate almost certainly lacks the authority in a federal civil case to issue a stay of execution in Texas. How about the state court judge with the DNA motion on his desk? He happens to be the same judge who set Skinner's execution date for November 9th.
Without intervention by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Gov. Perry, or the U.S. Supreme Court, Hank Skinner may well die before the DNA tests can be conducted. Welcome through the looking glass into the criminal justice system, where up is down, and down is up.
Fighting back, Skinner's advocates have posted a petition asking D.A. Switzer to "do the right thing" and order the tests on her own. And Skinner has gained support for his cause from, among others, six of the jurors who found him guilty and voted for death. Although this sordid episode is unfolding in Texas -- a state that has already performed almost one-third of the country's executions this year -- it is not too late to speak out with Georgia still on your mind. Troy Davis would have liked that.
Sister Mary Ann Walsh: The Death Penalty is Political Sport at Its Most Barbarous
Barbara Crafton: The Death Penalty Is America's Blind Spot
but seriously.....WHAT?
How big of a story can this be in Texas? Is it completely out? Do the masses know things like this are going on?
And if so, how can they allow it?
I'm sorry. But I would just assume that before the final punishment is given...that the inmate would be 100% without a doubt guilty. No questions what so ever.
Not just reasonable doubt...but all avenues of guilt or innocence have been explored.
Makes me sad things like this happen in our country
My husband and I live in Texas and read the paper everyday, this story is not there. I found it here on Huffington Post. It is frightening.
Where's the outrage from the supposed "fiscal conservatives" ??
What the h*ll is wrong with these people?
Too little, too late, in how many states (including Texas)? First it was Troy Davis being told he, not the state, not the side seeking the death penalty, had the higher burden of proof and now this? Since when have we been about proving innocence? Here I thought we were supposed to prove a person's guilt to take away their freedoms, much less their life.
As disgraceful, heinous, and inhumane as the death penalty is, even more so is our ever-churning blood lust, evident in our all-too frequent quest of 'justice' at all costs. Any form will do, it need not even be justice, it need only appear as such. Let's hope Mr. Skinner doesn't become the next name on the very long list of domestic and foreign collateral damage.
The only "apology" to Cruz and Alex Hernandez was the money DuPage Co. paid in the civil suits. Unfortunately, the money didn't come from the police and prosecutors who railroaded them. It came from the pockets of taxpayers.
When I challenged the DA to do the tests in 2000 (on the Nancy Grace show, of all places), he relented. It only took a few weeks, but he didn't like what came back -- blood on the sidewalk outside the home and a cassette recorder found near the bodies EXCLUDED Skinner. That was the end of DNA testing. It's less about time than it is about a commitment to finding the truth.