There were two admissable Skinner statements
So, I was in error.
The one deemed inadmissable by the DA, was later approved by a judge.
A combination of the two statements:
Texas Death Row inmate Hank Skinner's statements to police, Jan 1st and 4th, 1994
The murders were committed Dec 31, 1993
Dudley Sharp, contact info below
Texas death row inmate Henry "Hank" Skinner and his supporters claim that additional DNA testing will prove his innocence. It can't.
"If I thought for a minute that I killed them two boys (Twila's sons) then whatever I get I guess I deserve it you know. But I just cant see it happening. I can see me arguing with Twila. I can might even see maybe I might have killed her. But I cant see killing them boys."
"By the next morning it was dawning on me that you know that they had been killed. But it still didn't dawn on me that I was the one that done it."
After finding Twila in bed with another man, Skinner said: "I dont remember much what happened after that. I remember we was arguing and fighting and I cant remember."
"I think I remember seeing blood on her and on me."
"I thought we were just fighting and she just passed out or something. "
"And I dont remember if I throwed her off or if she got up off of me or -- or what happened but the fight ended for a minute and she went . . .". "We were fighting and arguing at first and I pushed her down and then the fight ended and she went in the back room and then came back with the stick and hit me in the back with the stick and then she had me down and knocked -- it knocked the breath out of me and then knocked me down on the ground. And then she was on top of me and she had the stick across my shoulders. See she was real real drunk real drunk." "At some point the fight kind of let up for a minute and I asked her where she had been. She told me she had been over at Howard Mitchells house and shes forbidden to go over there by me . . .". "And so we started arguing and fighting about that. She kept saying Howard was her friend Howard was her friend and we got into a shoving match. And then the stick got brought back into play somewhere along the line." "I remember she was swinging the stick at me and I was trying -- I rolled up under the coffee table so she couldn't hit me and I think she turned the coffee table over or I did getting out from under it. I got the stick away from her again and I think I hit her with it. Im not sure." "There was other stuff that happened in between and I dont I cant remember what it was."
"The next thing I remember after that sometime while we was fighting I -- I think Scooter (Twila's murdered son) run up behind me and grabbed me by the neck. He had me you know lik a chokehold. and I got away from him and I dont remember what happened to him after that. And when it seemed like the fight was over I -- I guess it was over I got up and left. I put my clothes on and I walked over to Andrea Medleys house."
"I dont even remember Scooter being there except for it seems like when me and his mama was fighting I -- it seems like he come up and grabbed me behind the neck and got me off of her and that's how I got throwed in the floor. But I -- I aint -- I aint sure if he done it or not or if I just fell."
NOTE: Skinner's only defense, since these statements, has been that he was passed out during the murders and that someone else committed the 3 murders, as he lay passed out in the middle of the crimes scene, getting blood all over him, in patterns inconsistent with that newer story and much more consistent with him being the murderer, as consistent with these two statements. The defense is, obviously, gone, with these statements.
Skinner wanted to plea guilty to one murder, in exchange for a reduced sentence. No surprise. The plea was rejected.
Sincerely, Dudley Sharp
e-mail sharpjfa@aol.com, 713-622-5491,
Houston, Texas
Mr. Sharp has appeared on ABC, BBC, CBS, CNN, C-SPAN, FOX, NBC, NPR, PBS , VOA and many other TV and radio networks, on such programs as Nightline, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, The O'Reilly Factor, etc., has been quoted in newspapers throughout the world and is a published author.
A former opponent of capital punishment, he has written and granted interviews about, testified on and debated the subject of the death penalty, extensively and internationally.