Hank Skinner

Hank Skinner

Henry Watkins "Hank" Skinner (born April 4, 1962) is a death row inmate in Texas. He was convicted of bludgeoning to death his live-in girlfriend, Twila Busby, and stabbing to death her two adult sons, Randy Busby and Elwin Caler. The murders occurred on December 31, 1993 at 801 East Campbell Avenue in Pampa, Texas. Skinner was convicted of the murders on March 18, 1995, and sentenced to death.

Fifteen years after his conviction, the case earned a large notoriety when, on March 24, 2010, and only thirty-five minutes before his scheduled execution (second execution date), the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay of execution to consider the question of whether Skinner could request testing of DNA his attorney chose not to have tested at his original trial in 1994. A third execution date for November 9, 2011, was also ultimately stayed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on November 7, 2011.

The Supreme Court issued on March 6, 2011, an opinion holding that Skinner may sue under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (See Civil Rights Act of 1871) claiming that Texas' rules for seeking post-conviction DNA testing upon which the judges rely are too narrow or restrictive. The ruling, however, did not specifically grant Skinner the DNA testing he had been seeking.

Although Skinner maintains he is innocent, his Supreme Court strategy at this time did not raise actual innocence claims—instead focusing on the question of post-conviction DNA testing.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote that a Section 1983 suit was available in cases where the relief sought by the inmate would

"not necessarily imply the invalidity of his conviction or sentence.” Since there was no telling whether the results of the tests Mr. Skinner sought would establish his guilt, clear him or be inconclusive, the suit was proper.".

Skinner echoed this strategy to a CNN reporter: "all the District Attorney's gotta do is turn over the evidence, test it and let the chips fall where they may. If I'm innocent, I go home, if I'm guilty I die..."

On November 14, 2012, the Texas Attorney General's office released an advisory to the Gray County state district court that convicted Skinner advising the court that the DNA testing further implicated Skinner in the Busby family murders. Among the findings: the rape kit indicated that Twila Busby was not raped. Skinner's blood was found in numerous places in the back bedroom where Busby's two sons were murdered. Skinner's DNA was also found on the handle of a bloody knife, along with DNA from one of the sons and an "unknown contributor", recovered from the front porch of the house. Skinner's attorney, Rob Owen, has requested additional DNA testing to identify DNA from an "unknown contributor" on the knife and in the back bedroom. Additionally, the state lost a jacket Skinner claims belonged to Robert Donnell--who Skinner claims is the real killer.