Death row man saved midway through last cheeseburger

Death row man saved midway through last cheeseburger

Convicted of murdering girlfriend, Texan hoping DNA evidence will clear his name



Death-row inmate Hank Skinner was slowly chewing his way through the enormous cheeseburger that was supposed to be his last supper when good news arrived: he'd no longer be forced to digest the artery-clogging meal in an executioner's chair.

The US Supreme Court intervened late on Wednesday to prevent a lethal injection from being given to the convicted murderer, saying it wants more time to consider his appeal. "I'd made up my mind that I was going to die," the condemned man told guards. "I really feel like I won today."

Skinner has always maintained his innocence of the murder of his girlfriend Twila Busby and her two adult sons at their home in Texas on New Year's Eve 1993, and that the killer was the victim's uncle. To prove his version of events, he wants key crime-scene evidence, including semen samples and bloodied knives, to be DNA tested.

But several courts, of increasing seniority, have denied that request, saying that a convicted man has no right under US law to seek a review of evidence that his defence team did not get analysed at his original trial.

It is incredible that his defence team failed to ensure that DNA was tested to find out whether their client was guilty or innocent!