Supreme Court to decide on another evidentiary death row case

Good news for those of us who care about justice:

On Monday, May 24, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider Texas death row inmate Hank Skinner's request for DNA testing that could clear him of the three murders for which he was convicted.

According to the Associated Press, the lower courts sided with the prosecutors who "argued Skinner wasn't entitled to testing of evidence that wasn't analyzed before his 1995 trial."

So just because of bad timing, and/or prior mishandling of the evidence, the lower courts thought it would be OK to risk the possibility of executing an innocent man. Where's the justice in that?!

Skinner's case will be argued during the Supreme Court's fall term.

I am (cautiously) optimistic about this case because of a similar Supreme Court ruling last August in the case of Troy Davis, who sits on Georgia's death row. In the Davis case, the Supremes ordered that new evidence, which lower courts refused to test and enter into the case, be reviewed in federal court. Davis's evidentiary hearing has been scheduled for June 23.

Stay tuned for updates on both cases.

Fingers crossed for justice.