DNA Exonerations Continue, but Not for One Man

[n2doc]

By BRANDI GRISSOM
Published: November 5, 2011

Hank Skinner has been pleading with the state since 2001 — to no avail — to test DNA evidence he believes will prove his innocence. On Wednesday, he is scheduled to walk into the execution chamber in Huntsville to face the ultimate punishment for three murders that he maintains he did not commit.

“I have never had a case where we had to fight 10 years to get DNA tests,” said Nina Morrison, senior staff attorney at the Innocence Project, who has worked on hundreds of cases. “This kind of protracted litigation is extremely rare these days.”

Mr. Skinner was convicted in 1995 of murdering his live-in girlfriend, Twila Busby, and her two sons in their home in the Panhandle town of Pampa. Texas — and most other states — did not have a post-conviction DNA testing law then. But since Mr. Skinner has been in prison, Texas has developed one of the strongest post-conviction DNA laws in the nation, and 45 inmates have been exonerated in the last decade based on test results.

As the Texas Legislature has expanded access to post-conviction DNA testing — since the original law was passed in 2001, legislators have loosened restrictions to DNA testing three more times — Mr. Skinner has filed new appeals. Each time, he has been rebuffed. Now, for the fourth time, he is on the verge of execution. He is awaiting a court decision on whether the most recent law, passed earlier this year, will be applied to him.

more

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/us/dna-exonerations-continue-but-not-for-one-texas-inmate.html?hp

[Angry Dragon]

1. What is the state afraid of??

Texas is one blood thirsty state (except the dems)

[Downwinder]

2. Perry has to have a human sacrifice to anoint his campaign.

[Tyrs WolfDaemon]

3. Not exactly

It is a sacrifice, but Perry thinks that the routine sacrifice is required to bring on the rapture.