INJUSTICE : Hank Skinner, Texas Death Row Inmate, One Week From Execution Despite Untested Evidence

That includes blood from the murder weapon, blood from a jacket left in Busby's home, a rape kit taken from Busby, scrapings from under Busby's fingernails and hairs she was clutching at the time of her death -- hairs that likely came from her killer. For more than a decade, Hank Skinner's legal team has tried to get that evidence tested, at no cost to the state of Texas. And for more than a decade, the Texas 31st District Attorney's Office has refused.

How can they do that....refuse to allow it to be tested....that can't be legal, can it...or is it just legal in Texas?

CoH

Didn't they refuse the last man they executed to have a DNA test run. I think somethings clearly suspect within their criminal justice system when they don't want the truth to come out, which ever way it goes. If they're sure he's guilty, then test it.

Skinner advocate and Medill Professor David Protess challenged the then-D.A. to test the hairs Busby held at the time of her death. The prosecutor agreed. But when preliminary mitochondrial testing suggested a good chance that the hairs didn't belong to Skinner, the prosecutor halted any further testing on the hairs or on any of the remaining untested evidence.

"They only tested the material they thought would implicate Skinner," Protess told me in an interview last year. "They fixated on their suspect, and once they thought they had enough for a conviction, they stopped."

I don't know why they can't petition the Supreme Court on this.

If it goes to Perry and he doesn't stop the execution under these conditions, in my opinion they are all guilty of premeditated murder. Texas may put up with these type of decisions, but if the Tea Party thinks the rest of the country will accept it they are all crazy.