Hank Skinner - Third Execution Date and Campaign For DNA Testing

Third Execution Date and Campaign For DNA Testing

Despite his pending litigation, Skinner was given a new execution date for November 9, 2011. Gray County District Attorney Lynn Switzer (the respondent in Skinner's lawsuit) wrote, in a brief to the court filed on June 2, 2011, that "Texas satisfied all the requirements of constitutional due process when it offered Skinner the opportunity to test the DNA evidence at trial."

In March, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a civil suit against Switzer, over post-conviction DNA testing, could proceed—but did not rule on whether Skinner should be given access to the actual evidence.

A new Texan law, SB 122, took effect on September 1, 2011. SB 122 intends to ensure that procedural barriers do not prevent prisoners from testing biological evidence that was not previously tested or could be subjected to newer testing. On Sept 6, 2011, Skinner's attorneys filed a motion in state district court in Gray County, Texas, to compel DNA testing of key pieces of evidence that have never been tested. However on November 2, 2011, Judge Steven R. Emmert of the district court of Gray county denied the third motion of DNA testing introduced by the defense, without explaining his decision.

A petition for the testing of the DNA on change.org has collected more than 100,000 signatures.

On November 7, 2011, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed Skinner's most recent execution so that a determination could be made about whether Texas law allowed for DNA evidence from the crime scene to be tested.

On June 1, 2012, one month after an oral argument at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the Texas attorney general's office says it no longer opposes a death row inmate's request for DNA testing his attorneys say could prove his innocence.