Oral arguments in Skinner v. Switzer on Wednesday, October 13, 2010
From the SCOTUS Blog by Mary A. Fisher:
Special feature: Texas death row DNA case: On Wednesday, October 13, the Court will hear oral arguments in Skinner v. Switzer.
This post is uploaded in three parts. Part I can be read here. An excerp:
“There is plenty of biological evidence left to test from the grisly crime scene: vaginal swabs, fingernail scrapings, two bloody knives, and hairs found clutched in Busby’s fingers. So it is tempting to state what seems obvious: when a man’s life or death depends on it, and the evidence still exists, why not just test it?
Switzer wouldn’t talk to me, citing the ongoing litigation, but her short answer would likely be procedure.”
Part 2 can be found here and part 3 is here.
To be continued…
Categories: Forensics, Miscarriages of Justice
Tags: Actual Innocence, Autopsy, Capital Punishment, Crime Labs, Crime Scene, Death Row, DNA, DNA Database, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Faulty Evidence, FBI, Forensics, Henry Skinner, Identification, Investigations Division, Miscarriage of Justice, Police, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Rape kits, Texas, Victim, Witnesses, Wrongful Convictions