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Execution looms with DNA evidence untested: Will SCOTUS, Governor intervene on Hank Skinner?

Today is the deadline. One of three things will happen today in the Hank Skinner case: He will be executed later tonight, the US Supreme Court will stay his case and order DNA testing on potentially exculpatory evidence, or Governor Rick Perry will commute the sentence for 30 days to allow the evidence to be tested. Which will it be? Your guess is as good as mine, so please record yours in the comments.For my part, I think Sam Millsap is right: DNA testing only works if the justice system chooses to use it. After the Governor signed Timothy Cole's posthumous pardon last week, after all the DNA exonerations in Dallas and around the state, much less after witnessing the imbroglio over post-execution innocence claims in the Todd Willingham case, I think it's high time Texas stopped fooling around with these cases (as though they were engaged in a juvenile game of political chicken with the capital defense bar) and start to make sure, at least, that the state is killing the right guy before putting him down...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on March 24, 2010 (boomark / email).