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| Henry "Hank" Skinner |
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has ruled that an inmate on death row in Texas can pursue his legal claims to crime-scene evidence that he says may show he is innocent.
The court’s narrow, 6-3 ruling Monday means that Hank Skinner will be not executed in the near future while his legal case continues.
But the decision will not necessarily result in Skinner winning the right to perform genetic testing on evidence found at the scene of the triple murder for which he received the death penalty.
Forty-seven states, including Texas, give convicted criminals in at least some circumstances the right to conduct post-trial DNA testing. More than 260 people have been exonerated after conviction through DNA evidence, according to the Innocence Project, which investigates cases and represents inmates.
The Supreme Court halted Skinner’s execution March 24, issuing an order less than an hour before he was scheduled to die.
The case is Skinner v. Switzer, 09-9000.
Supreme Court says Texas inmate has right to DNA testing
The Supreme Court has given another legal reprieve to a Texas death row inmate who says DNA testing of crime scene evidence will prove his "actual innocence."
It was unclear how the ruling will apply to similar legal challenges.
The justices by a 6-3 vote on Monday said Henry "Hank" Skinner does have a basic civil right to press for analysis of biological evidence not tested at the time of his trial.
The very narrow ruling does not yet get Skinner off death row for the murders of his girlfriend and her two sons, but it gives him another legal avenue to pursue to press his claims he did not commit the crimes.
Skinner came within 45 minutes of lethal injection before the justices stepped in and agreed to hear his constitutional claims.
Source:
CNN, March 7, 2011
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