Skinner was in the Pampa, Texas, house where Twila Busby and her children were found bludgeoned and stabbed to death. Skinner contends he was unconscious at the time of the murders after consuming vodka and codeine. His conviction rested largely on the facts that he was present at the crime scene, had small spots of blood from two of the three victims on his shirt, and his neighbor and ex-girlfriend, Andrea Reed, testified that he admitted his guilt to her.

 

Reed recanted her testimony in 1997, later telling the Medill Innocence Project she was pressured by police and prosecutors into fingering Skinner for the murders. Furthermore, DNA evidence lifted from the crime scene—including blood off the murder weapons, skin taken from under Busby’s fingernails and a rape test kit—have never been tested by a forensics laboratory.

 

Supporters of Skinner urge that a lab examine the DNA evidence before it’s too late. But Texas officials have refused to do so.

 

Chromosomal Laboratories in Phoenix, Arizona, has even offered to analyze the DNA for free.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Is Texas About To Execute Another Innocent Man? (by Radley Balko, Reason.com)

Will Texas Soon Execute Another Innocent Man? Our Reporting Challenges Verdict As Clock Ticks (by David Protess, Medill Innocence Project)

Audio: Is Texas Preparing to Execute an Innocent Man? (Texas Matters)

Case Open: The Investigation (by Brandi Grissom, Texas Tribune)

Case Open (by Brandi Grissom, Texas Tribune)

DNA Lab Offers Free 30-Day Test in Hank Skinner Case (by Michael Landauer, Dallas Morning News)

Supreme Court Petition: Henry W. Skinner v. Lynn Switzer, District Attorney for the 31st Judicial District of Texas (pdf)

Hank Skinner Case (hankskinner.org)