Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> StandDown Texas Project

Criminal Law

: StandDown Texas Project

National News Coverage of the Skinner Ruling

By Steve Hall

"Justices Allow Inmates to Sue for DNA Testing," by Adam Liptak in the New York Times. The Supreme Court on Monday made it easier for inmates to sue for access to DNA evidence that could prove their innocence. The legal issue in the case was tightly focused and quite preliminary: Was Hank Skinner, a death row inmate in Texas, entitled to sue a prosecutor there under a federal civil rights law for refusing to allow testing of DNA evidence? By a 6-to-3 vote, the court said yes, rejecting a line of lower-court decisions that had said the only proper procedural route for such challenges was a petition for habeas corpus. In her opinion for the majority, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg emphasized the narrowness of the ruling. Allowing Mr...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on March 08, 2011 (boomark / email).