Death row inmate Hank Skinner is urgently appealing to the US Supreme Court and the governor of Texas for DNA tests he says will prove his innocence. The state of Texas has previously refused to carry out the tests.
By News Wires
AFP - Just hours before he is due to be executed, death row inmate Hank Skinner is making urgent appeals to the Supreme Court and Texas governor for DNA tests he says will prove his innocence.
Skinner, 47, was convicted of bludgeoning his girlfriend to death and fatally stabbing two of her children on New Year's Eve in 1993.
While he has not denied being presence in the home during the killings, Skinner, who is scheduled to be executed Wednesday, insists that DNA collected at the site could clear him from the crimes.
Texas has refused to carry out the tests on evidence found at the home ever since a jury convicted him in 1995.
On Monday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously denied a clemency request to halt the execution to conduct testing. That left his fate in the hands of the US Supreme Court, which received the case last month, and Texas Governor Rick Perry.
"We urge the governor to take the reasonable and fair action of halting Mr Skinner's execution so that readily available scientific evidence can be tested before he is put to death on Wednesday," Skinner attorney Rob Owen said in a statement.
"To do anything less means that the State of Texas is willing to risk the execution of an innocent man".
Skinner has maintained his innocence since Day One. But he has also enjoyed the support for 10 years of Northwestern University journalism professor David Protess, who has rerun the investigation with his students.
He said DNA tests on Skinner would clear the death row inmate if compared to DNA found on the victims.
France24
