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.
Read more about this topic: Hank Skinner
Famous quotes containing the words execution, date, campaign, dna and/or testing:
“I herewith commission you to carry out all preparations with regard to ... a total solution of the Jewish question in those territories of Europe which are under German influence.... I furthermore charge you to submit to me as soon as possible a draft showing the ... measures already taken for the execution of the intended final solution of the Jewish question.”
—Hermann Goering (1893–1946)
“There is nothing that I shudder at more than the idea of a separation of the Union. Should such an event ever happen, which I fervently pray God to avert, from that date I view our liberty gone.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“Dianne’s not one of the boys, but she’s not one of the girls, either.”
—Marcia Smolens, U.S. political campaign aide. As quoted in Dianne Feinstein, ch. 15, by Jerry Roberts (1994)
“Here [in London, history] ... seemed the very fabric of things, as if the city were a single growth of stone and brick, uncounted strata of message and meaning, age upon age, generated over the centuries to the dictates of some now all-but-unreadable DNA of commerce and empire.”
—William Gibson (b. 1948)
“Traditional scientific method has always been at the very best 20-20 hindsight. It’s good for seeing where you’ve been. It’s good for testing the truth of what you think you know, but it can’t tell you where you ought to go.”
—Robert M. Pirsig (b. 1928)