On May 24, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Skinner v. Switzer. It’s the case of a Texas death-row inmate who sued a Panhandle prosecutor under a civil rights lawto gain access to DNA evidence the inmate claims will prove he is innocent of three 1993 murders. At issue in Skinner is whether an inmate can seek post-conviction DNA testing by filing a civil rights action under 42 U.S.C. §1983 or whether a habeas corpus action is his only remedy. In 1995, a 31st District Court jury in Gray County convicted Henry “Hank” Skinner and sentenced him to death for the murders of his girlfriend, Twila Jean Busby, and her adult sons, Elwin Caler and Randy Busby. In November 2009,Skinner sued Lynn Switzer , district attorney for the 31st and 223rd Judicial Districts, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Amarillo. Skinner alleges Switzer’s refusal to release certain biological evidence for testing violates his 14th Amendment right to due process and his Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. The evidence Skinner seeks to test includes vaginal swabs and fingernail clippings from the female victim, any biological material on two knives found at the murder scene, and blood and hairs on a jacket found next to the female victim’s body. [See "Death Row Inmate Sues Prosecutor, Seeks DNA Test," Texas Lawyer, Dec. 11, 2009, page 1.] On Jan. 20, U.S. District Judge Mary Lou Robinson dismissed Skinner’s complaint. Skinner appealed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which affirmed Robinson’s judgment on Jan. 28. Skinner petitioned the Supreme Court for writ of certiorari on Feb. 12. Rob Owen , Skinner’s attorney, says, “We look forward to the opportunity to persuade the [Supreme] Court that if a state official arbitrarily denies a prisoner access to evidence for DNA testing, the prisoner should be allowed to challenge that decision in a federal civil rights lawsuit.” Sprouse Shrader Smith shareholder Mark White of Amarillo, Switzer’s attorney, says Skinner elected at trial not to seek further testing of DNA evidence. “That was his trial strategy,” White says. White says Skinner has had ample opportunity to make his claims in the state proceedings and has never been able to show that additional testing will prove he is innocent. But Owen, co-director of the University of Texas School of Law Capital Punishment Clinic, says Skinner always has maintained his innocence. Owen says he expects oral arguments sometime in late October or early November.
Chief on the Case
Mike Ware, special fields bureau chief for the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office, rarely handles misdemeanor matters, he says. But Ware now supervises the prosecution of Kaufman County Criminal District Attorney Richard “Rick” Harrison, who was charged nearly one year ago with driving while intoxicated with a previous conviction, a misdemeanor. Ware says he agreed to Harrison’s defense lawyers’ request to postpone a May 21 hearing until July 1, so the defense team may conduct further investigations. Ware says he is handling Harrison’s case “to make sure it is handled fairly. We want to be sure he is treated as any other similarly situated defendant.” On April 13, Harrison lost the Republican Party primary runoff election, receiving 42 percent of the vote, according to the Office of the Secretary of State’s website. A police officer’s affidavit attached to Harrison’s arrest warrant states that on June 18, 2009, Harrison was involved in a two-vehicle accident in Seagoville. At the Dallas County jail, according to the affidavit, Harrison declined to submit to an Intoxilyzer examination to determine the level of alcohol in his system. More than a decade earlier, on Nov. 10, 1995, in Dallas County Criminal Court No. 2, Harrison entered a guilty plea to the charge of driving while intoxicated, according to the officer’s affidavit. Harrison and his lawyers, Dallas solos Keith Dean and Brady Wyatt, each did not return a telephone call seeking comment before presstime. In a Jan. 12 letter Harrison posted on his campaign website he stated, among other things, that he had completed an eight-week alcohol treatment program in Dallas and that he has not had a drink since the “incident.”
