Today, October 13, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court is considering the case of Skinner v. Switzer, in which the Justices will determine whether Texas death row inmate Hank Skinner can seek access to post-conviction DNA testing through the Civil Rights Act. Texas officials have refused to release key pieces of evidence gathered at the crime scene in 1993 for testing.
An editorial in the Dallas Morning News (“Test all DNA in Skinner case,” October 12, 2010) notes that “If Skinner loses, our state again could be in the embarrassing and outrageous position of authorizing an execution with potentially exculpatory evidence locked away.”
Read more in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Houston Chronicle, and Austin American-Statesman.