Sam Millsap, a former Texas district attorney from San Antonio, recently called for DNA testing in the case of Hank Skinner, who is scheduled for execution on March 24. Texas has so far refused to conduct additional DNA tests on critical evidence from the crime scene that could support Skinner's claim of innocence. For the last decade, the state has blocked DNA testing of key pieces of evidence, including a knife that might be the murder weapon and a man's windbreaker found next to the victim's body, which had blood, sweat and hair on it. Skinner's trial attorney failed to investigate another potential suspect, a man who was a relative of the victim and wore a windbreaker like the one found at the murder scene. Millsap stated, "Since 1973, 139 people in 26 states have been released from death row based on evidence of their innocence. Eleven of them were in Texas. Many of these people were freed because of DNA evidence. But DNA testing works only if we use it … It is cases like Skinner's that ended my lifelong support for the death penalty. Any system driven by the decisions of human beings will produce mistakes." Read full text below.
On March 3, a federal District Court barred the re-prosecution of former Ohio death row inmate Joe D'Ambrosio (pictured) for the murder of Tony Klann over 22 years ago. The court had ruled in 2006 that state prosecutors improperly withheld evidence about their star witness that could have exonerated D'Ambrosio at his 1989 trial. That ruling led to D'Ambrosio's conviction and death sentence being vacated, and he was eventually released on bond pending a possible retrial. But the state delayed reprosecuting him and did not tell the court that its primary witness, their only eyewitness to the murder, had died. The court concluded that these developments biased D'Ambrosio's chances for a fair trial, and hence the state was barred from retrying him. The state may appeal this decision.
Henry Skinner is scheduled (update below) for execution in Texas on February 24 despite the lack of DNA testing of critical evidence from the crime scene that could lead to his exoneration. Skinner has always maintained his innocence of the 1993 murder of his girlfriend and her two grown sons in Tampa, Texas. At his trial, the prosecution presented the results of selective DNA testing on some of the crime evidence that tended to prove Skinner's presence at the scene, which was his place of residence, a fact he has never disputed. But the state has repeatedly refused his request to test other evidence, including material found on the victim, that could point to another suspect. In addition, an investigation by journalism students from Northwestern University in 1999 and 2000 revealed that a key witness from the trial had recanted her testimony linking Skinner to the crime. Texas has already executed a number of