 Texas Execution Chamber
|
Henry Watkins “Hank” Skinner was supposed to be executed tomorrow, but last Tuesday a Gray County, Texas, District Court judge pushed the date back one month, to March 24. Skinner has been on Death Row in Texas since 1993, awaiting execution for the murder of his girlfriend and her two sons. He has maintained his innocence since his arrest, and investigators from the Northwestern University Journalism School’s Medill Innocence Project have shot numerous holes in the prosecution’s case. But Texas officials refuse to conduct a simple DNA test that could point to the condemned man’s innocence or cement his guilt.
Skinner’s scheduled lethal injection comes shortly after Texas Gov. Rick Perry has removed sympathetic panelists from the state forensic committee’s investigation into the case of Cameron Todd Willingham and replaced them with panelists critics say are stymieing the investigation. Willingham was executed in 2003 for murdering his three daughters by setting fire to his house. Nine arson experts and an investigation published in the New Yorker last year have since made a strong case that Willingham was innocent of the crime.
Prosecutors do not like to be proven wrong.
Thanks Cináedh.
“The defense lawyer was a disgraced former DA who had previously prosecuted the defendant”
Ok, so this Skinner guy has a criminal past … even more wonderful.
Interesting how this “the uncle did it” defense didn’t develop until after the uncle died.
I call bullshit.
One does not need to be a wonderful person to be innocent of specific allegations.
This is my read on it: All (including cops, defense attorney, and judge) of the involved were hillbillies. Some people got killed during a drunken/drugged blowout. One guy, covered in blood, survived. Ignoring that another person was probably present the police focused on that man and charged him. An indirect witness was located, although she later claimed to have lied. A local judge drafted a guy who already thought the defendant was scum to represent said defendant. A weak defense was mounted, but it was already a foregone conclusion.
This is a chain made of weak links. The defendant might certainly have done the crime. I’ll be charitable and say the chance over 50%.
In this circumstance somebody suggests looking at the ignored evidence that point to another person present at the time of the killings. Looking at that evidence is in no way unreasonable.
There is a small range of outcomes here. The status quo outcome is that Texas doesn’t do the test, kills the guy, and the state looks both bloodthirsty and unsure of itself. The exceptional outcome is that they do the test and it comes back that the other suspected perp was there at the time of the murders; enough doubt is introduced that the sentence is reduced to life in prison.
This guy is never going to walk out of jail, but Texas will look like a bunch of pussies if they don’t do the test.
If the process is good you can trust the results. Here the process was whack in multiple aspects.
There is a place, IMO, for capital punishment. An unreliable witness, the keystone cops, and a hangin’ judge make the process seem amateurish and tawdry.
“This guy is never going to walk out of jail”
This is true, so what’s the point. He was convicted and used his appeals.
Death penalty or no, he won’t be leaving jail.
So all of this posturing is pointless, one way or another he will die in jail.
“This is my read on it: All(including cops, defense attorney, and judge) of the involved were hillbillies. Some people got killed during a drunken/drugged blowout.”
With 17 years of nothing to do, it gives someone plenty of time to concoct what “really happened”.
“and the state looks both bloodthirsty”
“unreliable witness, the keystone cops, and a hangin’ judge”
Those are assumptions. You don’t know. This is why I label such talk as propoganda, because it can’t be credibly believed.
It isn’t based on special knowledge of the situation, you are painting your thoughts and biases onto situation.
Out there somewhere are actual good people who are wrongly convicted who would contribute something of value to society … instead, there is cause celebre focusing on this guy.
#43 HMeyers,
All Texas needs to do to demonstrate it is doing the right thing (if you belive in capital punishment) is perform the test and show that the guy is really guilty. If the test comes back negative, Texas still looks good as they didn’t kill an innocent.
I’ve lived in Texas myself (stationed in San Angelo, I guess some would say a military base isn’t really “living” in any location) and know there are both good and bad in Texas, but somehow Texas became the right wing’s poster child. (I’d live in Austin, but is is not a typical Texan city anyway.)
Do the damn test and then everyone will shut up about it.
Andrea Reed recanted *part* of her testimony. None of it crucial to the issue of guilt or innocence. Plus, the magistrate did not find her recantation crediblle. Hell, she was even impeached by her 12 year old daughter’s affidavit at the time
His def. atty was head of the DA’s office at the time. He did not personally prosecute skinner. Prior to trial , Skinner waived any conflict and wanted him to represent him. No appellate court has found any actual conflict. In fact, the Magistrate found that he gave skinner a quality defense.
The only people who know that the jacket didn’t belong to skinner are dead. Skinner did not testify. The person they are trying to blame always wore a windbreaker of a different color.
Even skinner’s own experts agreed that if he was truly as zonked out of his mind as he says and as his tox report indicates, he would not have been able to perform the acts that the did do that are UNDISPUTED. His experts also admitted that they assumed that skinner took the codeine before midnight — not after midnight and not after he bludgeoned Twila and stabbed her sons.
Also, skinner has never been diagnosis with an allergy to codeine. It is a common ruse for druggies like skinner, who was caught stealing syringes from the ER, to say they are allergic so the doc will give them stronger drugs. An allergy expert reviewed the evidence and found that he was not allergic to codeine. Also, skinner was hitting every pharmacy in the area and filling Rxs for drugs that if he were allergic to codeine he would be allergic to those drugs, too.
No, the jacket did not belong to the dead person they always find to blame murders on. The witness swore he wore a tan wind breaker all the time. The windbreaker found was gray. So, if anything they ruled him out as the murderer. Also, there were a small amount of blood spatter on the jacket since it was near where Twila was bludgeoned. Bloody is a huge exaggeration.
Now, skinner’s clothes were bloody. In fact, this attys hired a DNA expert and a blood stain expert to examine the evidence before trial. The found that the blood on skinner’s clothes matched his own, Twila’s and Elwin. The blood analysis expert reported that skinner was not lying comatose on the couach because there was medicum velocity impact spatter on the front of his shirt and cast off blood stains on the back. His jeans were covered on all sides, upper and lower, with both medium velocity impact spatter and cast off stains. That is why the defense did not want the other items tested before trial. This way they could argue that the state’s investigation was incomplete.
The DNA and blood spatter on his clothes prove beyond a reasonable doubt he bludgeoned Twila to death. Testing of any additional items do not make that evidence magically disappear. Combine it with all the other evidence and his lies, there is absolutely no doubt he murdered Twila and her sons.
And no, Twila was not raped. That is another lie by skinner. The medical examiner wrote in her autopsy report and testified that there were no signs of sexual assault. Her top was pushed up to expose her midriff. Her pants buttoned but the zipper down. That’s all. They want people to believe an intruder raped her, dressed her, beat her to death, and then cleaned up all the evidence that he was there.
The only yokels are those with no knowledge of the evidence who declare skinner innocent or pretend there is a reasonable doubt. Seriously, use your brains.
http://hankskinner.com/
No, doing the damn tests will not shut anyone up. If it matches skinner he can say he lived there and he was bleeding.
And none of the testing will make the DNA and blood spatter evidence proving that he bludgeoned Twila and stabbed Elwin magically go away.
The evidence was tested and it came back to Skinner. He murdered Twila. At least be consistent and don’t ignore the DNA and blood spatter evidence they do have. Then explain how any further testing will make it go away. Nobody ever does. You can’t.