Hank Skinner

Henry Watkins "Hank" Skinner (born April 4, 1962) was convicted of bludgeoning to death his live-in girlfriend, Twila Busby, and stabbing to death her two adult sons, Randy Busby and Elwin Caler.The murders occurred on December 31, 1993 at 801 East Campbell Avenue in Pampa, Texas. Skinner was convicted of the murders on March 18, 1995, and sentenced to death. Fifteen years after his conviction, the case earned notoriety when, on March 24, 2010, and only thirty five minutes before his scheduled execution, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay of execution to consider the question of whether Skinner could request testing of DNA his attorney chose not to have tested at his original trial in 1994.

On March 6, 2011, the supreme court answered affirmatively, allowing the request for DNA testing to proceed as a civil rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, rather than as a habeas corpus petition already rejected by State and Federal courts.

"Section 1983 suits are often more attractive to prisoners than habeas petitions because Congress and the Supreme Court have placed significant barriers in the path of inmates seeking habeas corpus.

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.” Since there was no telling whether the results of the tests Mr. Skinner sought would establish his guilt, clear him or be inconclusive, she wrote, the suit was proper." .

Circumstances Surrounding The Murders

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. In a letter published in April 2010, Skinner put forth a new claim that he was colorblind and accidentally ingested the near-lethal mix because he had confused the victim's "Fuschia [sic] pink" glass (which contained codeine) with his own "baby blue" glass. Twila Busby was murdered in the living room just feet from the couch where Skinner claims he was laying passed out on a sofa.

After the murders, Skinner claims he was roused off the couch by one of the mortally wounded victims—Elwin "Scooter" Caler. Caler died on the porch of a neighbor of Twila Busby. Skinner made his way to the home of Andrea Joyce Reed, 4 blocks away, and she let him in.

Skinner was arrested several hours later, being found in the darkened front bedroom of Reed's home. When he was arrested, Skinner was wearing clothes bearing blood spatters that were DNA-matched to two of the victims.

Skinner married Sandrine Ageorges-Skinner while on Texas death row in 2008. Sandrine Ageorges-Skinner, a French national, has been an anti-death penalty activist for more than 30 years—well before she met Skinner. She has corresponded with numerous death row inmates and has participated in numerous protests against the death penalty. Sandrine Ageorges-Skinner was banned from visiting or corresponding with Mr. Skinner because of violations of prison policies—a charge both claim was fabricated but, because the Texas Department of Criminal Justice won't release records, the claim cannot be supported or contradicted. Sandrine Ageorges-Skinner has received the official support of the French Government in her persistent efforts to save her husband from execution and prove his innocence.

U.S. Supreme Court Issues

Latest

On July 22, 2010, Skinner's lawyer presented his brief to the U.S. Supreme Court. 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. § 1983, or is such a claim cognizable only in a petition for writ of habeas corpus?"

Skinner's lawyer's brief also notes: "Mr. Skinner’s suit for access to DNA evidence does not challenge the validity of his underlying conviction or sentence."

Skinner's petition has been heard by the Supreme Court on October 13, 2010 at 10:00. The oral argument has been widely covered by, among others media, the Washington Post. No date has been given for the decision of the Supreme Court

On March 6, 2011, the decision of the Supreme Court redacted by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg answered that the civil right action is appropriate in this case.

Background

On March 24, Thirty five minutes before the scheduled execution, the U.S. Supreme Court granted Skinner a stay of execution to allow time to consider his petition for writ of certiorari.

On May 24, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it would review Skinner's case. 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.

At issue is whether post-conviction DNA testing is a civil right even though the DNA, in this case, was available at trial but Harold Comer, the appointed attorney of Skinner at trial, chose not to have it tested at the time because he believed it could be damaging to the case. Today, Mr.Comer says that even though he still defends his trial strategy, he would now request the testing. According to Professor David Protess, "Comer failed to request DNA testing, or present compelling evidence about the alternative suspect. And, at the sentencing hearing, he failed to object to using Skinner's prior convictions -- which he had prosecuted -- to justify the death penalty.". Harold Comer who was appointed to represent Mr. Skinner for his trial was a former prosecutor who had to resign his position because he embezzled drug money and was a drug addict. His resignation was the result of an agreement which allowed to keep his law license, in return for this agreement, he was given work as a court appointed attorney, his assistant D.A., John Mann, became the new D.A. Mr. Comer was paid the highest ever paid fee for representing a capital defendant. This fee matched, almost to the dollar, a large IRS fine he had to pay, otherwise he was going to jail. Mr. Comer not only failed to order the DNA testing, but he also failed to subpeona important witnesses at trial.

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. Switzer accused Skinner of "gaming the system" and said that, on two previous appeals, Skinner had failed to show how additional testing could exonerate him. The position of Mrs. Switzer is based on the decisions of The Texas Circuit Court of Appeals (CCA) which writes" The Appellant's request to compare fingerprint evidence would not provide a reasonable probability of the Appellant's innocence, but instead would only demonstrate the presence of a third party.". So the official position of the Texas authorities is that demonstrating the existence of a third party, being not an actual proof of innocence, is not a point to investigate.

Issues and Claims Surrounding The Case

Originally Skinner was incarcerated in the Ellis Unit in Walker County, Texas

Claims against trial counsel

Skinner's appointed defense attorney in the trial, Harold Lee Comer was a former district attorney who had prosecuted Skinner in earlier cases, before losing his position and pleading guilty to criminal charges over the mishandling of cash seized in drug cases. The Washington Post cited Mr. Comer's appointment as a possible case of cronyism, where Mr. Comer was appointed to a highly-paid case by a friend in order to help him raise the funds needed to pay off his overdue federal income taxes.

Witness recants testimony

Portions of the trial relied on the testimony of Andrea Joyce Reed who owned the house where Skinner was found by police several hours after the murders. Andrea Reed recanted several specific elements of her testimony after the trial. Reed's daughter's testimony, however, contradicted portions of the new claims and ultimately a magistrate found Reed's recantation not to be credible.

Mrs. Reed claimed that she had given false testimony at trial after having been threatened to be charge as an accomplice to capital murder, to have children taken away and to have her daughter called to testify at trial. . Among the new claims, Mrs. Reed said that Skinner told her not to call anybody (police) but did not threaten to kill her (as Reed testified in court). Mrs. Reed also claimed that she believed Skinner's story about having "kicked" Twila to death to be "a drunken fantasy like the other violent stories that he told me to explain how he was injured."

Skinner has never explained why he didn't call the police and why he instructed Mrs. Reed not to call the police that evening. The only explanation Skinner has given for this is: "The phone cord was jerked out of the wall. Nobody could call from our house. Scooter tried."

Occupational therapist testimony

"Occupational therapist Joe Tarpley testified at trial that, as result of an injury sustained six months before the murders, he believed Mr. Skinner’s right hand's grasping strength was half normal at the time of the murders. 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." The autopsy report confirms that the strangulation of Twila Busby was made by large hands, which equal strength in each hands.

No physician has testified or affirmed Tarpley's opinion either at trial or in the evidentiary hearings on appeal.

Toxicology testimony

At trial, the defense's toxicology expert, Dr. Lowry, had stated that based on the alcohol and codeine in his blood, Hank Skinner was too intoxicated to be able to physically commit the murders, but his testimony was weakened by the original statements of Andrea Joyce 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. Dr. Lowry did not testify to when, exactly, Skinner ingested the codeine. The timing of the codeine ingestion has been called into question, but at trial, prosecution witness Howard Mitchell claimed that 90 minutes before the crime, Skinner was lying on the living room couch completely unresponsive.

Dr. Harold Kalant, professor emeritus of Toxicology and Pharmacology at the University of Toronto, reviewed several of Skinner's trial documents. Based on his review, Dr. Kalant wrote a "Declaration" dated February 16, 2010, which he distributed to several anti-death penalty organizations. Dr. Kalant wrote that he believed Dr. Lowry underestimated Skinner's blood-alcohol content and the level of codeine ingested by Skinner. Dr. 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". Dr. Kalant based his calculations on the assumption that Skinner consumed the alcohol and codeine at 9:30 the evening of the murders.

Theory about alternative suspect and rape

Shortly before the murders Twila Busby, it is claimed, had been threatened by an uncle (killed in an automobile accident on January 5, 1997), Robert Donnell. Though Skinner and his legal team have raised questions, Donnell was never considered to be a suspect by the D.A. or the police.

"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. According to Mitchell, Donnell had a history of violent behavior, and attempted rape. Cliff Carpenter, an investigator for Skinner's appellate team, claimed to have spoken with Donnell's widow, Willie Mae Gardner and neighbor Deborah Ellis who called Gardner "Grandmother" though they were not related. According to Carpenter, Gardner told him Donnell came home very late the night of the murders, and also that he thoroughly washed the interior of the truck, cleaned the truck's carpets and repainted the truck within a week of the murders.

During cross-examination, at an evidentiary hearing in 2005, Deborah Ellis testified that she did not see any blood in the truck and that Donnell was just cleaning the truck.

According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, Donnell had no prior criminal history. According to the affidavit of Cliff Carpenter, Donnell had a criminal history in Oklahoma, for theft, embezzlement and burglary in the 1950s, and served three years in prison in 1989 for auto theft. According to the State of Oklahoma, Robert E. Donnell (white/male, born May 5, 1930, 5'0" and 185 lbs.) was incarcerated for 7 years (which may have included parole) for one conviction of auto theft beginning on November 29, 1988. No other criminal history is recorded in Oklahoma—nor is any assaultive offense attributed to Donnell.

Though Skinner's theory raises the possibility that Donnell raped Twila Busby, a photograph of Busby's body circulated by Skinner's defense team shows Busby's pants were snug around her waist at the time her body was found. This would tend to contradict claims made by Skinner, on his website, that Busby was raped ("Next, the rape kit: When Twila was found, her pants were unbuttoned and unzipped, pulled down; her blouse was pushed up over her breasts.").

There is also an affidavit by Mr. Ronald Campbell, an acquaintance of Twila Busby, who said that on the night of the murders he tried to place a collect call to Busby from the Gray County Jail, where he was an inmate, around 11:00 PM (2300 hrs). Campbell claimed that the oldest son answered but couldn't summon Twila Busby to the phone. Campbell claimed the boy sounded "upset and scared." 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. Phone records didn't corroborate Campbell's statements—so his testimony was not used at trial.

Claims of color-blindness and accidental codeine ingestion

Exactly how Skinner ingested the codeine, he said made him comatose, has never been clearly determined. Skinner's website has always claimed (and still does) "it is believed that he was either accidentally or intentionally poisoned by the addition of the [codeine] pills to his drinks."

In an April, 2010 letter responding to what Skinner called "false and undocumented allegations" circulating on the web, Skinner put forth a new theory that he was colorblind at the time and drank from the wrong cup.

Skinner himself explains: "A few years ago I learned that truth from a toxicologist who testified in another guy’s case, here. He says that once you reach a certain level of intoxication you go colorblind. Twila was always putting pills in her drink and sipping that one drink all evening. I later learned her girlfriend (G.S.) had given her 13 Fiorinal #4 codeine that she’d put in her drink. Twila and I had identical glasses but hers was Fuschia [sic] pink, mine was baby medium blue. I vaguely remember seeing the dregs of pills in the bottom of my cup and getting sick, passing out. I couldn’t figure out how it got into my cup. So I thought someone must have poisoned me. I think now I was just too messed up and colorblind to tell our cups apart anymore, I accidentally got Twila’s cup and drank from it, thinking it was my cup."

DNA issue

Unanalyzed crime scene objects

Skinner's and his appellate team have repeatedly tried to obtain a DNA analysis on the rest of the items found at the crime scene; including fingernail clippings, a knife found on the porch of Busby's house and a second knife found in a plastic bag in the house, a towel with the second knife, a jacket next to Busby's body and any hairs found in her hands that were not destroyed in previous testing, and vaginal swabs taken from Twila Busby at the time of her autopsy.

At the time of the trial, DNA analysis had been performed only on the clothes that Skinner was wearing at the time of his arrest, and the results were incriminating because DNA of two of the victims were found on the clothes.

All DNA that Skinner's defense team seeks to have analyzed, now, was available for testing at Skinner's original trial. Skinner's defense attorney Harold Comer, at the time, chose not to have it analyzed believing it could incriminate his client further. Skinner contends that never agreed with the decision by Comer.

Analysis of hair clutched in victim's hand

During the post-conviction appeals, DNA analysis of only the hairs clutched in the Twila's hand were tested and the results may have been either exculpatory (one of the head hairs, and an unmatched fingerprint found on a plastic bag containing a bloodied knife excluded Skinner), or inconclusive, and no further analysis was made. All the requests for DNA testing of the other items have been denied on the grounds that Skinner's trial attorney did not seek DNA analysis. Lynn Switzer, the Gray County District Attorney, claims that additional testing would not prove Hank Skinner's innocence. The DNA issue is a key element in the Supreme Court decision decision to review the case in the fall of 2010.

The claim that Twila Busby had been raped was not raised at Skinner's trial. Further, medical examiner Dr. Elizabeth Peacock testified at trial that Twila Busby was not raped.

Skinner vs. Switzer

On November 27, 2009, the defense team filed a complaint in federal court against the Gray County DA, Lynn Switzer, for refusing to release the evidence to the defense for private DNA testing, which she could conceivably do without a court order. On January 15, the magistrate in charge of the complaint recommended that it be dismissed and on January 20, the Federal district Judge affirmed the dismissal. This decision is being appealed at the Federal Court of Appeals. In January 2010, Hank Skinner wrote to Lynn Switzer a letter where he states that his former prosecutor John Mann lied about the results of the hair analysis, and concludes his letter "All what I am asking you, Madam, is to do the right thing and test the evidence.

This pending case against Lynn Switzer was explicitly mentioned in the Supreme Court order of suspending the execution on March 24, 2010.

Post-Conviction Appeals

Skinner maintains he is innocent, and has repeatedly appealed his conviction both at state and federal levels.

New defense team

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 Mr. Skinner. .

2005 evidentiary hearing

They obtained in November 2005 an evidentiary hearing, which transcript is fully published.

Partial appeal accepted, then rejected

On May 14, 2008, a limited certificate of appealability was granted. Skinner's consecutive appeal, a federal habeas corpus petition centering on inadequate performance by his trial attorney on issues involving the investigation of an alternative suspect and a blood spatter analysis, was denied by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on July 14, 2009. On August 10, 2009, Skinner's Defense team introduced a new petition for a rehearing en banc with the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The petition was rejected on August 28, 2009.

Execution order

On October 26, 2009, Judge Steven Emmert signed the order setting an execution date for Hank Skinner on February 24, 2010. The date was then changed to March 24, due to procedural errors which rendered the original mandate invalid. The Texas Board of pardons and paroles voted unanimously against an additional stay and against a commutation of Skinner's sentence. Governor Rick Perry did not issue a decision as the US Supreme Court issued an unlimited stay of execution.

Writ of certiorari

On November 23, 2009, Hank Skinner's attorneys filed a petition for writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court of the United States.

Prison issues

Allan B. Polunsky Unit

As of 2010 Skinner is located on death row in the Allan B. Polunsky Unit in Polk County, Texas.

Skinner's writings

Mr.Skinner is author of, and self-publishes a series of articles, "Hell Hole News" which covers a broad range of topics related to his case and the conditions on Texas' Death Row.

Contraband Cell Phone and SIM

After a Texas Death Row inmate Richard Tabler used a smuggled cell phone to threaten a Texas State legislator from his jail cell, authorities conducted a series of raids aimed at confiscating the contraband phones. During the raids, according to a statement issued by TDCJ's spokesperson Michelle Lyons two SIM cards were found hidden in Skinner's bible. Skinner denied having a cell phone, but an X-Ray revealed an illegal cell phone hidden in his rectum.

Texas Attorney General's Execution Notice

On March 17, 2010, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott issued a media advisory relating to Skinner's upcoming execution and summarizing details of the case that sent Skinner to death row.

Abbott's letter claims that DNA testing had been performed on the blood-stained clothing Skinner was found wearing at the time of his arrest, which matched two of the victims. The letter doesn't give any reason for the State's refusal to analyze other key elements of evidence.

The advisory also reports that Skinner had previously been convicted for assault on a police officer as well as several other felonies, that Skinner also had charges pending stemming from assault on two other police officers in Gun Barrel City, Texas, that his ex-wife also testified in court Skinner was abusive to her, and said that she left Skinner after he threatened to use an axe handle to beat her to death. According to Skinner, these accusations of assault were bogus. He writes "When I was arrested, the District Attorney had me under indictment for two felony crimes. He had previously had me arrested for a bogus burglary, but I had demanded the first examining trial in Gray County in seventeen years, before he could get me indicted and proved all his allegations false".

He also denies having threatened his ex-wife who, in a 2009 television interview, he began blaming as a party to Twila Busby's murder.

Articles and TV Coverage

On November 10, 2007, Al Jazeera International aired a two-part program entitled "American Justice - Fatal Flaws", part 2 deals with wrongful convictions through Hank's case and Curtis McCarty's who was exonerated from Oklahoma death row after 22 years.

As of February 2010, the Hank Skinner case is included in the Medill Innocence project of Professor David Protess.

On February 24, Amarillo News Channel 10 posted its full, unedited exclusive 30-minute interview with Hank Skinner.

In March, 2010, The Skeptical Juror site carried a 10-part series reprising the facts of the Hank Skinner case, and updates daily.

On March 24, the evening Skinner's execution was stayed, on Larry King Live, Sandrine Ageorges-Skinner, together with Curtis McCarty, exonerated from Oklahoma death row by post-trial DNA analisis, were interviewed. Both pleaded against the denial of analysis of the full available evidence and expressed their belief that Skinner is innocent.

On April 4, Twila Busby's daughter Lisa and Busby's uncle Dave Brito "broke years of silence" and gave an interview to News Channel 10 in Amarillo. 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." Lisa Busby also appeared to advocate for Skinner's execution. "We're suffering. We have no closure. We have no peace because he's still alive," she said. Lisa finished her interview by agreeing that the testing needed to be done, saying "I mean test the DNA and get it over with [...] That way we have something of peace and closure."

On April 22, 2010, Skinner wrote Channel 10 a letter to "clarify" statements he made in an interview that was aired nationally.

On May 3 Channel 10 produced a followup piece containing Skinner's letter to them regarding the statement he made. The statement in question related to the "violent stabbing and death of the beating victims" in the February interview. On camera, Skinner said referring to the murders: "if it had to happen and it had to go that way I wished I had 'uv done it because I wouldn't have done 'em like that."

On May 5, Skinner took issue with "false and undocumented allegations" circulating on the web.

On May 25, 2010, Time Magazine published an article about the case: "In Death penalty case, innocence has to matter".

On June 10, 2010, "Politics Daily" published a report of recent interviews of former jurors at Skinner's trial, which states "Many of the jurors interviewed were taken aback by the amount of untested evidence, stunned that even the blood on two of the murder weapons had not been analyzed. The seven jurors agreed that all the evidence should undergo DNA analysis"

External links

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• Hank Skinner's Self-Published Defense site with links to several legal documents
• Texas Attorney General Media Advisory re Hank Skinner
• Offender Information. Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Retrieved on 2007-11-26.
• Offenders on Death Row. Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Retrieved on 2007-11-26.