Urgent Action Needed in Hank Skinner Case

From the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty:

Thank you for all of the calls, emails, faxes, and letters you have sent on behalf of Hank Skinner.  As you know, Mr. Skinner is scheduled to be executed by the State of Texas on Wednesday, March 24, despite the fact that critical DNA evidence from the crime scene has never been tested.  Last week, Chromosomal Laboratories, Inc. in Arizona offered to test the DNA evidence - for free - if Governor Perry grants Mr. Skinner a 30-day reprieve.

TCADP and its partners are urging the Governor to intervene in Hank Skinner's case and issue a 30-day reprieve to allow for DNA testing to take place.  Please contact the Governor AS SOON AS POSSIBLE to urge him to exercise his authority to grant this reprieve and to prevent a possible miscarriage of justice!

Talking points and contact information for your letters and faxes can be found below.   

To stay up-to-date on developments in Mr. Skinner's case, please go to http://tcadp.blogspot.com/.

Thank you for taking action at this critical moment! TCADP will continue to update you on this situation and provide additional action opportunities.

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It is very helpful and greatly appreciated to have the support of letters, which should go to the attention of:

CONTACT INFORMATION
Chelsea Thornton Buchholtz
Assistant General Counsel
Office of the Governor
1100 San Jacinto
Austin, Texas 78701
The fax number for the General Counsel's office is 512-463-1932.

TALKING POINTS
Since 1973, 139 people in 26 states have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence.  Eleven of them were in Texas.

Many of these people were freed because DNA evidence proved their innocence.  But DNA testing only works if we use it.

On March 24, Texas is scheduled to execute Hank Skinner, despite denying testing of DNA evidence that could implicate another man in the murder of Mr. Skinner's girlfriend and her two sons.  DNA testing could resolve the doubts about Mr. Skinner’s guilt, but the State has refused to allow evidence to be tested for ten years.

Is Texas about to create the next Cameron Todd Willingham?

Mr. Skinner’s execution date is just days away, but key pieces of evidence have never been subject to DNA testing.  Mr. Skinner’s trial counsel chose not to seek DNA testing, despite the fact that Mr.Skinner steadfastly insisted he was innocent of the crime.

The never-tested evidence includes: a man’s windbreaker found next to the victim’s body, which had blood splatter, perspiration stains and human hairs on it; two knives, at least one of which was a likely murder weapon; a bloody towel; the victim’s fingernails, which may have blood under them; and swabs from a rape-kit that could reveal whether the victim had intercourse around the time of her death and with whom.

Mr. Skinner’s attorney also failed to investigate and present evidence of another suspect who might have committed the crime.  DNA evidence may or may not implicate this alternate suspect, but we’ll never be certain without testing.

A clemency petition has been filed with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Governor Rick Perry.

We urge the Governor to intervene in Hank Skinner's case and issue a 30-day stay to allow for DNA testing to take place.

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The Troy Anthony Davis Story

The Boldness of Hypocrisy from Kevin Cooper on Vimeo.

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On Torture and Interrogation Methods

The idea that coercive interrogation works rests on an untested and largely unsupported framework, says Shane O'Mara, director of the Institute of Neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.

Read the rest:

Boing Boing

Use Your Miles to Help The Exonerated

From the Innocence Project:

Dear Courtney,

Thank you for your continued support and activism to help free the innocent.  Today, I’m writing with a simple and unique opportunity for you to help people who have been exonerated after serving years or decades in prison for crimes they didn’t commit. Without spending a dime, you can help us send exonerees to Atlanta this April for the annual Innocence Network Conference.

Please donate points through your credit card program or miles through your airline frequent-flier plan, and we will use all of the donations to help exonerees attend this critical gathering. American Express Rewards Points are particularly easy for us to process, but we can also work with other credit card and airline programs. If you are interested in using your points or miles to help exonerees, please call me at 212-364-5992 or email me at aamel@innocenceproject.org.

The Innocence Network conference is the only event all year where exonerees from around the country gather to network, receive support from one another, learn ways to cope and transition back into the world after prison, and find ways to prevent future wrongful convictions. This year, we have had more requests for financial assistance for travel than ever. Without donations of points or miles, we will have to say no to some of these requests.

Help us make this conference the best one yet for as many exonerees as possible. Donating points or miles only takes a minute, and it can have a profound impact on the exonerated. Thank you for your support.

Best regards,

Angela Amel
Director of Social Work
The Innocence Project

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Solitary is Torture

Great video, pass it on:

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Interesting Wrongful Conviction Stats

From the Texas Observer:

—The 250 innocent people have been sent to prison in 33 states for a combined 3,160 years. That's an average of 13 years in prison. Think about where you were in 1997. (I was in the middle of my sophomore year in college). Bill Clinton was just a year into his second term. Now think about spending every day from 1997 till now in prison for a crime you didn’t commit.

—60 percent of the 250 exonerees are African American; 29 percent are white.

—17 were on death row when they were exonerated. That’s 17 innocent people who would have been executed had DNA testing not cleared them. You have to assume there's been an innocent person somewhere who wasn’t lucky enough to have testable DNA in their case and was wrongly executed in this country—quite possibly in Texas and quite possibly Cameron Todd Willingham.

—76 percent of the wrongful convictions were caused, at least in part, by witness misidentification. In 38 percent of the cases, more than one eyewitness wrongly identifying an innocent person.

Read the rest: Who Gets Wrongly Convicted and Why

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Johnny Depp Believes in West Memphis Three's Innocence

From The Huffington Post:

Johnny Depp will appear on this Saturday's "48 Hours Mystery" as he makes a plea for a new trial for the West Memphis Three, three teenagers accused of murdering three boys in a satanic ritual in 1994.

As seen in the preview clip below, Depp says, "I firmly believe Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley are totally innocent. It was a need for swift justice to placate the community.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

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