May 26, 2010 - PRESS

PRESS

GETTING FACTS STRAIGHT IN TEXAS MURDER CASE EDITORIAL FORT WORTH STAR TELEGRAM
 MAY 26, 2010

Getting facts straight in Texas murder case Wednesday, May. 26, 2010 Editorial Fort Worth Star Telegram Texas Death Row inmate Henry W. "Hank" Skinner, convicted in 1995 of a gruesome triple murder in Gray County, has spent years trying to get DNA tests on evidence collected after the 1993 killings.

Skinner insists that he didn't kill his girlfriend or her two adult sons at the home they shared and that the testing would prove it.

But the Gray County district attorney's office has maintained that Skinner could have had the testing before his trial and used the evidence then, and because he didn't it's too late. Texas and federal courts have ruled in the DA's favor.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously recommended against clemency for Skinner, and Gov. Rick Perry refused to issue a 30-day reprieve.

But in March, after Skinner had eaten his "last meal" and was about an hour away from lethal injection, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a stay of execution so it could study his petition. And this week the justices agreed to grant full review of the issue his lawyers raised: whether prisoners can use a federal civil-rights law to request DNA testing after their convictions.

The Supreme Court's upcoming decision, which could affect hundreds of convicted felons, would not overturn Skinner's conviction. But if the justices rule in his favor, it would set in motion the legal procedures that could bring more certainty to the determination of innocence or guilt.

Skinner's appellate attorneys have raised questions that cast doubt: Why didn't all available pieces of evidence undergo DNA testing? Why did a key witness later recant her story, saying she had been pressured by the prosecution? Why was another possible suspect (now dead) not pursued?

Some facts in the case were uncovered through an investigation by students of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. They're among the entities that have contributed to getting 250 people in this country exonerated of crimes through post-conviction DNA testing.

Texas leads the nation in wrongfully convicted people being exonerated. As a result, Texas has also made it easier to seek DNA testing after a conviction if it wasn't available before. But that law wasn't in place when Skinner was convicted, a reason his recourse is the federal civil-rights law.

The Supreme Court's decision, which probably won't come until 2011, could bring some consistency to current law. As his lawyers argued in their petition, prisoners in most of the country can raise a claim like Skinner's, while those in seven states, including Texas, cannot.

More important, a ruling that led to thorough DNA testing in the case could lead closer to the truth about who brutally bludgeoned Twila Busby and stabbed Elwin Caler and Randy Busby in their Pampa home on New Year's Eve 1993.

As Skinner's petition argues, "DNA testing not only serves the interests of the innocent but also provides much-needed closure to victims and their families by either confirming the conviction or, in the event of exoneration, positively identifying the actual perpetrator."

There must be finality to convictions, especially in murder cases. But getting the conviction right is essential.

http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/05/26/2219699/getting-facts-straight-in-texas.html#ixzz0p7Q2Pmcy