Texas: Delay for Skinner execution, but that's all?

This does seem odd. On one hand, a judge agrees to delay an execution, which was challenged based on a lack of DNA testing. But then the same judge sets a new execution date. The real issue is that a clerk made an error in doing the paperwork. This is the nature of the frustrating appeals process in Texas. Small errors in a game of chess matter. Signs of evidence and major doubts to really get consideration.

For Immediate Release

STATEMENT OF THE LEGAL DEFENSE TEAM FOR HANK SKINNER REGARDING
RE-SCHEDULING OF MR. SKINNER'S EXECUTION

"Today, February 17, we received notice for the first time that the judge of the convicting court yesterday withdrew Mr. Skinner's previously scheduled February 24 execution date, apparently upholding our challenge to the previously issued warrant of execution as void under Texas law.

We are dismayed that the court chose, in the same order, to re-schedule Mr. Skinner's execution for March 24. This unseemly haste to execute Mr. Skinner ignores the growing public concern and outcry over the unanswered questions about Mr. Skinner's guilt. Now, more than ever, DNA testing is necessary to resolve those doubts.

Setting a March 24 execution date also means that Mr. Skinner's pending lawsuit against the Gray County District Attorney in the United States Supreme Court, seeking the much-needed DNA testing, must now be resolved under needless and entirely artificial time pressures. Given that the District Attorney stands to benefit directly from that undue haste, it is especially disappointing that the court chose to press forward with Mr. Skinner's execution on March 24.

In addition, there is a very serious legal question whether the trial court even has the authority to set an execution date for someone, like Mr. Skinner, whose post-conviction challenges to his conviction and death sentence have never been heard by the Texas courts.

We remain committed to obtaining the DNA testing our client says will prove his innocence, and will take every available legal step to that end."

Source: Michael Landauer, Editor, Dallas Morning News, Feb. 18, 2010

Actions for Hank Skinner:

Sign and send this online petition/email to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.

Write, call, fax or email your own letter to the Board of Pardons and Paroles and Texas Governor Rick Perry. Urge them to stay the execution to allow testing of DNA. In the subject line of your emails or in any letters to the Board of Pardons and Paroles, write "Attention Case of Hank Skinner #999143".

Hank Skinner is scheduled to be executed in Texas on March 24 for three murders he maintains he didn't commit. Several key pieces of biological evidence from the crime scene have not been tested. DNA testing could prove Skinner's innocence or confirm his guilt, but prosecutors are opposing Skinner's appeals and seeking to execute him.