Hank Skinner

Who is Hank Skinner?

Henry Watkins "Hank" Skinner is a death row inmate in Texas. He was convicted of bludgeoning to death his live-in girlfriend, Twila Busby, and stabbing to death her two adult sons, Randy Busby and Elwin Caler. The murders occurred on December 31, 1993 at 801 East Campbell Avenue in Pampa, Texas. Skinner was convicted of the murders on March 18, 1995, and sentenced to death.

Fifteen years after his conviction, the case earned a large notoriety when, on March 24, 2010, and only twenty minutes before his scheduled execution, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay of execution to consider the question of whether Skinner could request testing of DNA his attorney chose not to have tested at his original trial in 1994. A third execution date for November 9, 2011, was also ultimately stayed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on November 7, 2011.

The Supreme Court issued on March 6, 2011, an opinion holding that Skinner may sue under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claiming that Texas' rules for seeking post-conviction DNA testing upon which the judges rely are too narrow or restrictive.