Hank Skinner will eventually get the DNA tests he wants.  The only question is whether he’ll be dead already.

“We are deeply disappointed that the trial court has denied Mr. Skinner’s request for DNA testing.  Unfortunately, the trial court’s order offers no explanation for its conclusion that DNA testing is not called for in this case. It will now be up to the Court of Criminal Appeals to give Mr. Skinner’s case the deliberate consideration that is necessary to ensure a correct result.  We are confident that upon such careful review, the Court will conclude that DNA testing is necessary in this case to ensure the reliability of the verdict.  But for now, the Court of Criminal Appeals must stop the scheduled November 9 execution rather than allow itself to be rushed to a hasty and ill-considered decision.  The stakes in this case are too high to allow Mr. Skinner to be executed before he has a fair chance to make his case that the trial court made a grave mistake in denying his request for DNA testing.”

– Robert C. Owen, attorney for Hank Skinner
– November 3, 2011

For those of us who breath non-Texas air, this seems to go beyond the realm of stupid.  We strain to understand why.  Why, given that the Texas legislature has  enacted a law for the purpose of enabling an inmate to seek DNA testing even when his lawyer failed to do so before trial?

Last June, both houses overwhelmingly passed a revision to the DNA testing law to clarify that inmates should be able to request testing even if their counsel did not request any at trial. Lawmakers even cited Skinner’s case in passing the legislation. Hank Skinner, it seemed, would finally get his DNA tests.

Yet the issue lingers, awaiting a ruling, while the execution proceeds with a speed that makes no sense at all.

November 9 is fast approaching.  There’s nothing magical about the date, compelling a judge to fix it so firmly, to resist every attempt, and all reason, to move it down the road sufficiently to get a ruling on Skinner’s right to have the DNA tested.  Sure, assuming that the ruling is against him, there will be an appeal, and that it will mean more delay before he gets his chance.  And then there’s the delay awaiting the actual testing.

So many potential causes for delay.  So what?  What is the need to rush the execution of Hank Skinner?  What fear strikes at District Attorney Lynn Switzer’s heart that compels her to fight the testing?

Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins, in the meantime, has  reportedly decided that it’s his duty to free Dale Duke, imprisoned since 1997, because he’s innocent.

 “The original prosecutor’s failure to provide critical information to the defendant coupled with overwhelming evidence that the initial allegations were false, convinced me that Mr. Duke was wrongfully convicted. After a thorough review of the case, I approved a recommendation to ask the court to exonerate Mr. Duke.”

But as I’ve been told by my friends in Texas, Dallas really isn’t Texas. It’s just some northern city mistaken plopped down in the wrong place.

For terrific background on Hank Skinner, read Radley Balko’s piece at Huffington Post.  For a rational explanation of why Hank Skinner can’t get DNA evidence tested, there’s no place to go.  As for why Hank Skinner is scheduled to be killed on November 9, it’s a Texas thing.  

One would have thought that a rational adult in a position of sufficient power would have put a stop to this idiocy before we came so close to November 9th.  In light of the ruling that his killing will proceed on the appointed date, one would be wrong.

This is just nuts.  And to anyone who would complain that Hank Skinner is a horrible murderer who deserves to die, the issue would have been over a decade ago if they just conducted the DNA testing in the first place and put the issue to rest.  You don’t kill first and test later.  You don’t kill first and deny testing.  And yes, if it were up to me, you wouldn’t kill at all.