Hank Skinner
§ 1983 (see Civil Rights Act of 1871), claiming that Texas' rules for seeking post-conviction DNA testing upon which the judges rely are too narrow or restrictive.
The ruling did not specifically grant Skinner the DNA testing he had been seeking, but on June 1, 2012, the Texas attorney general's office finally agreed to the analysis of the evidence required by the defense.
These results could incriminate Robert Donnell, a deceased (1997) maternal uncle, who Twila Busby had told friends had molested her on multiple occasions and who had threatened her shortly before the murders.
"Prosecutors argued that the tests only confirmed Skinner's guilt, while lawyers for the 51-year-old defendant said the results raised enough questions about the identity of the perpetrator that a jury would not have condemned him to death.
"[6] In July 2014, Judge Steven Emmert issued a ruling saying that "it was 'reasonably probable' Skinner would have still been convicted of a triple murder even if recently conducted DNA evidence had been available at his 1995 trial".
[11] Skinner lived with the victims and admitted that he was in the home when the murders took place, but claims he was in a comatose condition from a near lethal dose of codeine and alcohol.
"[12] 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.
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.
[16] In November 2012, a further analysis of DNA evidence found Skinner's blood on numerous objects and furniture in the back bedroom where Busby's sons were murdered.
In it, he asks one question: "may a convicted prisoner seeking access to biological evidence for DNA testing assert that claim in a civil rights action under 42 U.S.C.
[20] Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote that a Section 1983 suit was available in cases where the relief sought by the inmate would not "necessarily imply the invalidity of his conviction or sentence."
[21]Skinner echoed this strategy to a CNN reporter: "all the District Attorney's gotta do is turn over the evidence, test it and let the chips fall where they may.
[26] The justices agreed to grant full review of the issue his lawyers raised: whether prisoners can use a federal civil-rights law to request DNA testing after their convictions.
[30] Gray County District Attorney Lynn Switzer responded to the Supreme Court's decision to hear Skinner's case in a letter to an Amarillo News Station.
Sims later approved $86,000 in legal fees for Comer's work in the case, one of the biggest sums ever paid to a court-appointed attorney in Texas.
Tarpley testified he didn't believe Skinner would have had the strength needed to choke Ms. Busby with enough force to break her larynx and hyoid bone.
"[38] At trial, the defense's toxicology expert, Dr. Lowry, had stated that based on the alcohol and codeine in his blood, Skinner was too intoxicated to be able to physically commit the murders, but his testimony was weakened by the original statements of Reed, which led the jury to accept the prosecution's theory that Skinner had developed a resistance to alcohol and codeine which would have allowed him to function even under heavy doses.
The timing of the codeine ingestion has been called into question,[39] but at trial, prosecution witness Howard Mitchell claimed that 90 minutes before the crime, Skinner was lying on the living room couch completely unresponsive.
Based on his review, Kalant wrote "I wouldn't be surprised if the heavy drinker would be able to move about somewhat, but he would be very confused and badly impaired, and would have difficulty standing or walking in a coordinated manner".
[41] Shortly before the murders Twila Busby had been threatened by an uncle (killed in an automobile accident when drunk driving on January 5, 1997), Robert Donnell.
[42] "The Skeptical Juror" reported on an interview with Howard Mitchell (the man who drove Twila Busby to the New Year's Eve Party) by an investigator with the DA's office.
Campbell also claimed he could hear the noise of "one hell of a fight," in the background, and the deep voice of an unknown male individual who wasn't Skinner.
On November 14, 2012, the Texas Attorney General released a statement indicating that Skinner's DNA, and that of an unknown contributor, was found on the bloody knife on the front porch.
[51] Lynn Switzer, the Gray County District Attorney, claims that additional testing would not prove Hank Skinner's innocence.
[60] For the post-conviction appeals, Rob Owen, co-director of the University of Texas at Austin School of Law's Capital Punishment Clinic was appointed to represent Skinner.
Skinner's new defense team obtained an evidentiary hearing in November 2005, the full transcript of which is available, along with numerous other legal documents, on the website set up to defend his case.
Skinner is the author of a series of self-published articles called "Hell Hole News" which covers a broad range of topics related to his case and the conditions on Texas' death row.
[64] During the raids, according to a statement issued by TDCJ's spokesperson Michelle Lyons, two SIM cards were found hidden in Skinner's bible.
On November 10, 2007, Al Jazeera International aired a two-part program titled American Justice – Fatal Flaws, the second part of which deals with wrongful convictions and evokes Skinner's case and that of Curtis McCarty, who was exonerated from Oklahoma's death row after 22 years.
Lisa was the only one in her family to survive the murders and chose "to stay at her aunt and uncles' place – keeping away from home because she was scared her mom's boyfriend [Hank Skinner] might turn violent after drinking that night at a New Year's Eve party."
