On January 1994, Hank Skinner was arrested and subsequently wrongfully convicted of the murder of his live in partner and her two sons.
How do we know he was wrongfully convicted? Not least because it has been proven that the murders were performed by someone with immense brute force anddexterity in both hands. Hank, however, was deeply stuporous or unconscious atthe time of the murders, and was further handicapped by a pre existing machine injury which reduced the strength in his dominant (right) hand to less than half normal strength.
Why Was Hank arrested? Blind, dogmatism on the part of Sheriff Randy Stubblefield who declared that he "had a feeling Hank Skinner was involved" before he had even set foot on the crime scene. From that point on,investigations blindly focussed on "proving" Hank's guilt. True, there was evidence of Hank's presence at the crime scene hardly surprising since he lived there. But there was no evidence linking Hank to the murders themselves.Witness and forensic evidence which pointed to another suspect was ignored bythe police, the prosecution and even the original defense attorney.
How then, did the prosecution secure a conviction? Quite simply through the extortion of perjured testimony from their "star witness", Andrea Reed. Ms. Reed has since signed a sequence of sworn affidavits in which she admits to lying incourt as a direct result of threats made against her by the police and prosecution investigators.
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and convicting court went to extraordinary lengths to procedurally bar Hank from any right to state habeas corpus, andquickly set an execution date without ever considering the many issues of actualinnocence and prosecutorial misconduct. The Federal Court was not fooled though,and thanks to their intervention, Hank is still alive to fight for justice. Butfor how long....?
For full details of this disturbing case and information regarding how youmay help, please visit www.cdinet.demon.co.uk.