UPDATE: SKINNER'S DNA STRENGTHENS STATE'S CASE
New question for Hank: if you were passed out from codeine on the couch, how did a bloody knife with your DNA on it make it onto the front porch???
The Texas Attorney General released an advisory on November 14, 2012, indicating further DNA testing performed on unanalyzed crime scene evidence strenthened the case against Skinner. Among other things, the DNA testing showed Skinner's blood all over the back bedroom where he stabbed the Caler brothers to death. Skinner's DNA was found on the handle of a bloody knife dropped on the front porch.
Oh, and the rape kit? You know the one Skinner has said would contain DNA from the conveniently-dead alternative-suspect-uncle? It came back negative too. Twila wasn't raped. Skinner and his lawyer are pinning their remaining hope on an "unidentified contributor" whose DNA was found at the scene--hoping innuendo can trump all that blood.
THE HYPE
Henry Watkins "Hank" Skinner is a convicted murderer awaiting execution on Texas Death Row for the brutal slayings of his girlfriend, Twila Busby, and her two sons on the evening of December 31, 1993.
In 2008, Skinner "married" Sandrine Ageorges a French anti-death penalty activist, abolitionist and long time death row "groupie" described by one news organization as having a "gaunt appearance and an impressive capacity to communicate." Ageorges set about rallying world support for Skinner and his claim that untested DNA evidence would free him from death row.
First, let's clear something up. ALL the DNA evidence at the center of the latest debate was available for testing at Skinner's original trial. Let's say that again: ALL of it was available for testing in 1994.
Translation: there is no new DNA evidence to test. Skinner, and/or his lawyer, chose not to have it tested because they believed it would incriminate Skinner further.
But "DNA testing" is a great buzz-phrase right now so it is easy for death penalty opponents to get it into the media.
Another fact: Skinner has never put forth his theory as to how any of the untested DNA evidence will exonerate him. He has never said "it is going to show Twila's dead uncle's DNA in the rape kit" (which we now know it didn't) or "it is going to show someone's blood other than my own on the knife."
Skinner simply makes statements like "all the District Attorney's gotta do is turn over the evidence, test it and let the chips fall where they may. If I'm innocent, I go home, if I'm guilty I die..."
Skinner is nothing more than a punk on an evidence fishing trip.
So Skinner and Ageorges have a carefully woven website that can be best described as a series of twisty-little rabbit holes chocked full of technical tidbits to distract readers from backing off and looking at Skinner from a 50,000 foot level. By the time an unsuspecting reader finishes the 17-page diatribes with carefully crafted links, voila, Skinner is innocent!
Skinner's website bears the dedication: "in memoriam of Jasen Busby" in English and French. Don't be confused. Jasen Busby was not related to Skinner's victim Twila Busby or her family. Jasen Busby was, in fact, a fellow cold-blooded killer who was executed for robbing and killing 2 teenagers because "the devil made [him] do it."
Skinner's supporters include a laundry list of abolition-centric organizations and "news reporters" who seem to overlook serious facts that can't be simply explained away. They just perpetuate this vicious killer's story. They ignore how often Skinner changes his story, adding another twisty little junction to one of his numerous rabbit holes, each time an "inconvenient" issue is brought up.
But the plain truth, the truth from the 50,000 foot view of Skinner's case, dictates you would have to believe that Skinner emerged as the sole survivor, unscathed (save for a self-inflicted slice wound in his hand), wearing the victims' blood, from a horrific crime scene in which his girlfriend was savagely bludgeoned, her children stabbed to death--and, as of November, 2012, Skinner's blood was found all over the house.
You would have to believe it to be innocent behavior for Skinner, instead of trying to get help, to hide at his ex-girlfriend's house (where he was tracked and apprehended) 4 blocks away after not calling the police himself and telling her not to call the police.
No, in order to believe Skinner is innocent, you have to ignore the facts and accept his ever-changing story, the "revelations," his behavior before, during and after that fateful night. You have to simply believe everything he and Ageorges tell you. You have to sign on to the "hype-train."
This site is here to derail the train.
READ THE INCONVENIENT FACTS THAT SKINNER CAN'T JUST EXPLAIN AWAY