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The Supreme Court put off the execution of a Texas convicted person whose DNA evidence was never tested in the case against him. For once, it looks like the highest court in the land ruled in favor of an individual. Hank Skinner has been allowed to live for a while, at least until all doubts are settled. That is a basic standard of justice.
In the Skinner case, evidence that was obtained at the crime scene was neglected even though the person Texas courts condemned to execution protested he was not there, and was innocent. Another person has been implicated in the crime.
Skinner was set to die Wednesday for the 1993 murders of his live-in girlfriend, Twila Busby, and her two mentally disabled adult sons — a massacre he says he did not commit. For more than a decade, Skinner has been asking Texas courts to test a slew of DNA evidence that was not analyzed during his 1995 trial. His entreaties have been repeatedly rejected. In the days before his death, Gov. Rick Perry’s office was inundated with thousands of letters from around the world requesting such testing. Some state lawmakers asked Perry to postpone the execution to allow for analysis of the evidence. But he didn’t have to act on Wednesday. About an hour before Texas officials were scheduled to push a poison cocktail through Skinner’s veins, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay.
Skinner got the news as he was eating his last meal at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Walls Unit in Hunstville. Officials there said he was tucking in to a cheeseburger that was among the smorgasbord of items he ordered to eat before his execution: a salad with ranch dressing and bacon bits, Popeye’s chicken, fried catfish, onion rings and a chocolate milkshake. “I had made up my mind I was going to die,” Skinner said. “I feel like I really won today.”
The court issued an indefinite stay, but it did not agree to accept Skinner’s case. The court said it needed more time to review Skinner’s claims and to decide whether to intervene. “This action suggests that the court believes there are important issues that require closer examination,” said Rob Owen, Skinner’s attorney and co-director of the University of Texas School of Law’s Capital Punishment Clinic. “We remain hopeful that the court will agree to hear Mr. Skinner’s case and ultimately allow him the chance to prove his innocence through DNA testing.”
While prosecutors tested some DNA evidence — blood samples from Skinner’s clothing that placed him at the scene of the crime — a pile of DNA evidence went unexamined, including a rape kit, murder weapons and other biological samples found the night of the murders.
For a person to be condemned to die, there should be no stone unturned to prove his guilt. In this case, that standard was not met.
I would love to have more reason to thank the Supremes for actions like this, that actually uphold this country’s claim to be under the Rule of Law. This time, they acted well and made the country proud.
6 Comments
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. They’re still the Supreme Court which means 5/9 of them are still in the looney tunes, lazy thinker crowd.
Even once a decade Thomas utters a word.
By giving them credit, I am hoping to encourage the coathanger court to step it up, get some justice into that mounting record of corporate toadying.
Why just the other night, Clarence was saying he likes reading your diaries. He hates it when I comment though. I had to tell him my first name was Mad, not @)!$&)%_##.
JP likes reading FDL, but his nap times keeps getting longer by the day.
Of course, Justices Ginsburg and Sotomayer are no doubt the ones who follow most closely. And you’re too kind, I know Clarence doesn’t take the time…
/s
The real issue is Texas. The State of Texas is infamous for its racist and at times incompetent criminal justice system, and the State of Texas is infamous for mindlessly putting to death people with questionable convictions.
It’s not clear what lies at the heart of such institutional malfunction, but it is no laughing matter that Texas leads the nation in executions and that the disposition of the justice system and political officials is so famously merciless. The perception I have is that, at the heart of the issue, lies an extremist Biblical or fundamentalist ideology that is enmeshed with Texas’ famous “cowboy culture”.
Under right wing domination, TX has compiled a record of disgraces such as the execution leadership and our Bd of Education ditching education for religious extremism. Hopefully, thinking people will be energized to replace the whole freakshow with functional government.