March 23, 2010 - PRESS

PRESS

PARIS PLEA FOR US MAN ON DEATH ROW

RADIO FRANCE INTERNATIONAL


MARCH 23, 2010

Tuesday 23 March 2010 Paris plea for US man on death row

By Mark Rodden for RFI Supporters of the French wife of an American man due to be executed in Texas on Wednesday will hold a demonstration in front of the US embassy in Paris in an effort to earn him a last-minute reprieve. Hank Skinner, 47, is set be executed in Huntsville at 6pm local time (midnight French time) after his appeal to test DNA evidence that could earn him an acquittal was rejected.

Skinner was convicted in 1995 of murdering his then girlfriend and her two sons in the town of Pampa in Texas, but has always maintained his innocence.

French abolition group ECPM, along with Skinner's wife Sandrine, have called for a demonstration to be held outside the US embassy at 5pm on Wednesday. The director of the ECPM Raphaël Chenuil-Hazan said they will ask the Governor of Texas Rick Perry to grant Skinner a stay of execution until DNA tests are carried out.

Skinner had been due to be executed on 24 February, which was coincidentally the opening day of the Fourth World Congress against the Death Penalty in Switzerland. He received a stay of execution but a fresh appeal to have DNA evidence investigated was rejected by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.

This means that Perry, who has the power to grant a one-time 30-day reprieve, is now the only person who can intervene to save Skinner.

Sandrine Ageorges met her husband on death row after starting to write to him in 1996. She says they have a clear idea of who the real culprit in the case is.

“Yes we have and so does the prosecutor,” she told RFI last month. “They just need to do DNA and fingerprint comparison with that other suspect that was never investigated.

“He's actually dead now. He died in a car accident in '97 but because he had served time in prison [...] everything is on record. So it's a matter of doing the comparison.”

Ageorges feels that the fact it's an election year in Texas has probably not helped Skinner's chances.

“The law that allows death row prisoners to seek post-conviction DNA testing was passed [in Texas] in 2001. But at the moment it's only been granted to two death row prisoners, who were more likely to be guilty than innocent.

“All those who have strong cases of innocence are being denied - repeatedly denied - access to DNA testing. The state does not want to have to admit publicly that it made a mistake.”

Earlier this month, Perry granted a posthumous pardon to Timothy Cole, who died in prison 13 years into a 25-year sentence for rape. The Texan governor made the decision more than ten years after Cole's death after the confession of another inmate and DNA testing proved his innocence.

Last week a DNA testing laboratory in Phoenix, Arizona, offered to test evidence from the Hank Skinner case for free if he was granted another stay of execution. http://www.english.rfi.fr/americas/20100323-paris-plea-us-man-death-row