Page 13 of 14 FirstFirst ... 311121314 LastLast
Results 121 to 130 of 140

Thread: Henry Watkins "Hank" Skinner - Texas

  1. #121
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2019
    Location
    Tennessee
    Posts
    7,316
    So he's still alive because he claims to be innocent? Any evidence or is he just wasting our time like Swearingen and Reed?

  2. #122
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2015
    Location
    Pennsylvania
    Posts
    4,795
    Texas death row inmate 'optimistic' after 27 years

    AFP

    Hank Skinner, who has been on death row in Texas for nearly three decades, says he still remains hopeful.

    "I am optimistic I won't end up here. I should have never been here to start with. And it's been a long journey," he told AFP during an interview.

    Incarcerated in Livingston, a town some 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of Houston, Skinner has always maintained his innocence.

    He spoke to AFP via telephone from behind a glass window at the Allan B. Polunsky prison, wearing a white prisoner's uniform.

    In 1995, Skinner was sentenced to death for the murder of his girlfriend and her two adult sons in Pampa, a small town in the Texas panhandle.

    He did not deny having been in the house where the three died, but said he had passed out from a combination of drugs and liquor. Skinner was found in a nearby house with blood on his clothing, but insists that DNA testing would prove his innocence.

    The father of three, who recently turned 60 and has a salt-and-pepper beard, Skinner has now been waiting for more than three years for a decision from the state's highest criminal court.

    The Texas Court of Appeals will weigh in on whether it believes the jury that sentenced him would have made a different choice had it had access to DNA tests that are available today.

    Texas has 197 death row inmates. In 2020 and 2021, six were executed but 11 were taken off the list after their sentences were reviewed.

    Some of those are still behind bars. One of them is Raymond Riles, who had his death sentence commuted to life in prison due to a history of mental illness.

    Others are free; Cesar Fierro was returned to Mexico after 40 years on death row.

    If the court agrees with Skinner, he will remain in prison but will be able to appeal in an attempt to prove his innocence.

    - Five execution dates -

    On five different occasions Skinner's execution date was set.

    In March 2010, the US Supreme Court spared him 23 minutes before he was scheduled to receive a lethal injection, just after what was supposed to have been his last meal.

    It was his lawyer who told him the good news.

    "I dropped the phone and I just slid down the wall. And I didn't realize it but I had tears running out of both eyes," he said.

    "I felt like somebody had picked up a 1,000-pound weight off of my chest. I felt so light. I thought I was gonna float away."

    Once the euphoria and shock wore off, he suffered a terrible low as he came to terms with the fact that he would have to return to death row and "all the suffering here."

    Seeing fellow prisoners die, he said, is harder than being locked up in a small cell 22 to 23 hours a day, without television or physical contact with others except when guards handcuff or uncuff him.

    A total of 127 inmates have been put to death since 2010 in Texas, the state that executes the most people.

    Living in the detention center means Skinner's days are filled with noise, morning to evening.

    "You have some people here who are mentally disturbed. They beat on the walls, they kick the doors, they scream and holler to the top of their lungs," he said.

    Others shout conversations with imaginary people. Still others engage in real dialogue, but noisily.

    "It's cacophonous all the time. But you learn to just tune it out," Skinner said.

    Because there is no daylight, and also because breakfast is served at approximately 3:00 am, he says it is difficult to maintain any sort of life rhythm.

    He sleeps when he collapses from fatigue and takes advantage of the quieter periods of night to read, often perusing other convicts' files.

    Having worked in a law firm before his conviction, he is happy to share his expertise with them.

    - French wife -

    "I help anybody with their appeals except baby rapers, people who kill and mutilate children. That, I can't do it," he said into the phone handset.

    "I have a reputation -- I've walked 11 people out of here. That's better than practically any death penalty lawyer can say, except my lawyer."

    In 2008, Skinner married a French anti-death penalty activist, who is also convinced he was the victim of a miscarriage of justice.

    If he is released "we will find a little house in a forest where we can both spend time together," his wife Sandrine Ageorges-Skinner said in French.

    As for his remaining years of life, "I'd like to spend every minute of that with my wife," Skinner said.

    He also has another project in mind: "I'm gonna end the death penalty worldwide."

    "I think if people knew what it was really like, they wouldn't vote for the death penalty. I've always believed that," he said.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...eaf6d023f79a89
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  3. #123
    Senior Member CnCP Addict
    Join Date
    Feb 2021
    Posts
    702
    Appeal denied by the TCCA.

    https://search.txcourts.gov/SearchMe...4-ed832da8ef48

    I guess there are no other appeals pending in state court now and he might get a new execution date in 2023.
    Last edited by Julius; 10-05-2022 at 09:37 AM.

  4. #124
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2019
    Location
    Tennessee
    Posts
    7,316
    Probably. This was over his DNA testing that he was granted back in 2014 after his 2011 execution was stayed.

    https://search.txcourts.gov/SearchMe...4-ed832da8ef48
    Last edited by Bobsicles; 10-05-2022 at 03:16 PM.
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

  5. #125
    Senior Member CnCP Addict
    Join Date
    Feb 2021
    Posts
    702
    This is going to be controversial.

  6. #126
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2015
    Location
    New Jersey, unfortunately
    Posts
    4,382
    Well Tarrant County DA has retirement syndrome now. But Skinner is White so it won't be as big of a problem as Saint Rodney or Saint Julius.
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  7. #127
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2019
    Location
    Tennessee
    Posts
    7,316
    The fact that the entire TCCA unanimously ruled against him is bad for him.
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

  8. #128
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mastro Titta's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2018
    Location
    Prato, Italy
    Posts
    1,275
    Henry "Hank" Skinner has received an execution date of September 13th, 2023.

    https://www.tdcj.texas.gov/death_row...xecutions.html

  9. #129
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2019
    Location
    Tennessee
    Posts
    7,316
    I’m guessing the date is so far away to deal with any nonsense Skinner and his attorneys might come up with.
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

  10. #130
    Member Newbie
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Posts
    33
    That would probably be a pretty good guess. I wish his date wasnt so far away. He needs to go.

Page 13 of 14 FirstFirst ... 311121314 LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •