A Texas court granted Henry ‘Hank’ Skinner a stay of execution Monday afternoon amid pleas to test more DNA evidence from the case – a request which the Medill Innocence Project submitted in 2000 when investigating the convicted murderer’s case.

Founder and fomer director of the Medill Innocnce Project David Protess called the decision a “double victory” in an email to The Daily Monday night, saying the time will allow the courts to test relevant DNA evidence.

Protess and his students, some of whom remain in contact with Skinner, investigated the 1995 conviction Skinner had raped and murdered his girlfriend and murdered her two adult sons in 1993.

A team of students from Protess’ Investigative Journalsim class traveled to Texas to investigate the case in 2000 on a tip from a Medill alumnus.

“I was stunned to see that much of the DNA evidence had not been tested,” Protess told The Daily on Sunday, prior to Monday’s court decision. “I thought it would be a simple case and so I … sent the first team (of students) to Texas. What they found poked major holes in the prosecution’s case.”

Skinner came within 47 minutes of execution in 2010, and the U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-3 in 2011 that Skinner had the right to request more DNA testing.

Staff Report