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TEXAS (USA): APPEALS COURT ISSUES LAST-MINUTE EXECUTION STAY
November 7, 2011: A Texas appeals court stopped the execution of a man who claims that DNA tests of evidence will prove his innocence.
The inmate, Henry Skinner, who was convicted in 1995 of murdering his girlfriend and her two sons and was scheduled to be executed on 9 November, has fought for the tests for 10 years.
His lawyers had not requested DNA testing on all the evidence available at trial out of fears that the results would go against him.
After the state enacted a broad postconviction DNA testing law in 2001, Mr. Skinner began a string of appeals that reached the United States Supreme Court.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals cited recent changes in Texas law on DNA testing, and said it would be “prudent” to “fully review the changes in the statute as they pertain to this case.”
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