HUNTSVILLE, Texas — The U.S. Supreme Court stopped the execution of condemned prisoner Hank Skinner on Wednesday, about an hour before he could have been taken to the Texas death chamber.
Skinner asked the court and Gov. Rick Perry for the delay for DNA testing that he insisted could clear him in a triple slaying. The brief order grants him the delay but does not ensure he will get such testing. Perry had not decided on the delay.
Skinner, 47, faced lethal injection for the bludgeoning and strangling of his girlfriend, 40- year-old Twila Jean Busby, and the stabbings of her two adult sons in Pampa, Texas, on New Year’s Eve 1993.
In the order, the justices said they would put off the execution until they decide whether to review his case. If the court refuses the review, the reprieve is lifted, according to the order, and Skinner would become eligible for another execution date.
Skinner, in a small holding cell a few feet from the death chamber, was informed of the reprieve in a phone call from his lawyer.
“I had made up my mind I was going to die,” he said. “I’m eager to get the DNA testing so I can prove my innocence and get the hell out of here.
“I’m greatly relieved. I feel like I really won today.”
Also Wednesday, the Supreme Court questioned whether an Alabama death- row inmate can challenge his second death sentence with an argument that state officials said he didn’t use when he was first sentenced to die for shooting a county sheriff.
Lawyers for Billy Joe Magwood want to argue that Alabama law was changed to make Magwood’s crime a capital offense after it had already been committed.
Defendants aren’t allowed to appeal using arguments that could have been brought in the original case, but Magwood’s lawyers say that since he was sentenced to die a second time, he should be able to use a new argument in his second round of appeals.
The court will make a decision on that case this year.
