Death row inmate makes DNA plea

The US Supreme Court on yesterday heard an appeal in the case of a Texas death row inmate who wants the state to perform DNA tests he claims will prove his innocence.

Attorneys presented oral arguments before the justices in the case, in which 48-year-old Hank Skinner faces death by lethal injection.

Mr Skinner, sentenced to die in 1993 for the triple murder of his girlfriend and her two children, insists that DNA tests on evidence left at the crime scene would prove his innocence.

But Texas has refused to carry out the tests, arguing Mr Skinner received a fair trial when he was convicted by a jury in 1995 and is not entitled to a reconsideration of his guilty verdict. In March the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously denied a clemency request to halt the execution to conduct testing. That ruling left Mr Skinner’s fate in the hands of the highest US court. If the court turns down the appeal, Texas penal officials will set a new execution date for Mr Skinner, who was to have been put to death in March.

The court is not expected to issue its ruling until June 2011.

Yesterday, an attorney for the state of Texas argued that there would be an avalanche of similar appeals if the court finds in favour of Mr Skinner.

In recent years, 17 Americans on death row have been freed following DNA tests.