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God is good all the time, and all the time, GOD IS GOOD! Sing with me, Hank Skinner. You will live to see the dawning of another Thursday because the United States Supreme Court stepped in and granted you a stay of execution just one hour before your execution on March 24, 2010. Judge Scalia signed the order. Will miracles never cease? Thank you, Judge Scalia and other Supreme Court justices. Thank you for acknowledging that Hank Skinner has an inalienable right to life unless and until it is PROVED by every available method, including a DNA test, that he has forfeited that right.  All people, and certainly all Americans, should have that right. Please see that Skinner is actually given a DNA test. Sometimes when condemned men like Troy Davis, Thomas Arthur, and others get a stay of execution, they do not actually get the DNA tests or new trials they need and DESERVE to prove their innocence.  Instead, they remain on death row for decades or are moved within feet of the executioner's lethal injection table again to be killed without any proof!  With all that can go wrong between the time that a crime is committed and a judge or jury reaches a verdict in a defendant's case, there may be no way to end all wrongful convictions. However, it is EASY to end all wrongful executions here and now: JUST SAY:
DEATH TO THE DEATH PENALTY!

Please see the following news report

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Death Row Inmate Gets Last Minute Reprieve
AP article published by "Crime and Safety" 3/24/10
http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/03/24/2065436/death-row-inmate-gets-last-minute.html

HUNTSVILLE -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday granted a stay of execution to Death Row inmate Hank Skinner, who asked for more time to continue his appeals for DNA tests on evidence collected during the investigation of the triple murder in Pampa that he was condemned for.

Wednesday's order by Justice Antonin Scalia came about an hour before Skinner was scheduled to be taken to the death chamber. Scalia granted a delay until the full court decides whether to consider his appeal. The order does not ensure that Skinner will get the DNA testing.

Skinner's attorneys had asked the high court and Gov. Rick Perry to delay his execution in the hopes that DNA tests of semen and skin samples, as well as two bloody knives and a windbreaker, will clear him of the slayings on New Year's Eve 1993.

Neither Skinner's trial attorney nor the Gray County district attorney's office sought to have the evidence tested before his trial. In subsequent appeals, state and federal courts have ruled that if the evidence could have been tested then, Skinner has no right to ask for the testing now.

Skinner has sued Gray County District Attorney Lynn Switzer seeking DNA testing, which she has refused to do.

Perry has made no comment about Skinner's request for a stay. Asked about it on Friday in Fort Worth, the governor said he had not be briefed on the matter.

Triple slaying

Skinner, 47, was condemned for the bludgeoning and strangling of his girlfriend, Twila Jean Busby, 40, and the stabbings of her sons Elwin "Scooter" Caler, 22, and Randy Busby, 20.

Scalia's order came as Busby's relatives were climbing the steps of the Huntsville prison to witness Skinner's execution.

Skinner, in a small holding cell a few feet from the death chamber, expressed surprise when was informed of the reprieve.

"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."

Rob Owen, Skinner's lead attorney and a University of Texas law professor, said the court action suggests that the justices believe "there are important issues that require closer examination."

"We remain hopeful that the court will agree to hear Mr. Skinner's case and ultimately allow him the chance to prove his innocence through DNA testing," he said.

Wrongful conviction?

In Fort Worth, Cory Session, whose late brother Tim Cole was exonerated after his death because of DNA evidence, said he did not understand how state authorities could go forward with an execution under the circumstances.

"I think the fear is if there was a wrongful conviction, it means you have to go back and examine the system that produced that wrongful conviction," said Session, policy director for the Innocence Project of Texas.

"The Supreme Court needs to say this should be the law of the land -- that if DNA evidence exists, it must be tested before any execution is carried out."

Skinner always maintained he was innocent and contended that an uncle of Twila Busby was the killer. She had insisted on leaving a New Year's party after the uncle, now dead, had made crude sexual advances.

Skinner's attorneys want DNA testing on vaginal swabs, fingernail clippings, a knife found on the porch of Busby's house and a second knife found in a plastic bag in the house, a towel with the second knife, a jacket next to Busby's body and any hairs found in her hands that were not destroyed in previous testing. Only the hairs were tested previously, and those results were inconclusive, according to court documents.

The Medill Innocence Project at Northwestern University raised doubts about Skinner's guilt. Students found a neighbor who said the uncle had cleaned out his van and replaced its carpet the day after the slayings.

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I give thanks for righteous judges.  Thank you, justices.  Please do not decide for justice on a one-by-one basis.  Please reconsider last year's ruling and declare anew that all Americans have an inalienable right to life.  That means all convicted persons should have a right to prove their innocence through post-conviction DNA testing or new trials if they have substantial new evidence.  Bless you for saving Hank Skinner today.  Please see that he actually gets a DNA test so that this situation does not repeat.

That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?
~Genesis 18:24-26

Blessings!

Mary Neal
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill ( AIMI )
http://www.Care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI