Texas Execution Halted for DNA Test

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday stopped the execution of condemned prisoner Hank Skinner about an hour before he could have been taken to the Texas death chamber.

Skinner asked the court and the governor of Texas for the delay for DNA testing that he insisted could clear him in a triple slaying.

The brief order grants him the delay but does not ensure he will get such testing. Gov. Rick Perry had not decided on the delay.

Skinner, 47, faced lethal injection for the bludgeoning and strangling of his girlfriend, 40-year-old Twila Jean Busby, and the stabbings of her two adult sons. The slayings occurred at their home in the Texas Panhandle town of Pampa on New Year's Eve in 1993.

The court order came as relatives of Busby were climbing the steps of the Huntsville prison to prepare to witness his punishment.

In the order, the justices said they would put off the execution until they decide whether to review his case. If the court refuses the review, the reprieve is lifted, according to the order, and Skinner would become eligible for another execution date.

Skinner, in a small holding cell a few feet from the death chamber, was informed of the reprieve in a phone call from his lawyer.

"I had made up my mind I was going to die," he said. "I'm eager to get the DNA testing so I can prove my innocence and get the hell out of here.

"I'm greatly relieved. I feel like I really won today."

On Tuesday, Skinner spent several hours with Sandrine Ageorges-Skinner, a 49-year-old French national who has been his wife since 2008.

France's ambassador to the U.S. asked Perry to pardon Skinner or halt the execution, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said Wednesday. President Nicolas Sarkozy also offered "France's support" to Skinner's wife, Valero said. France opposes capital punishment.

Prosecutors argued Skinner wasn't entitled to testing of evidence that wasn't analyzed before his 1995 trial. Courts over the years since his conviction have agreed, rejecting his appeals.

Skinner's attorneys wanted DNA testing on vaginal swabs taken from Busby at the time of her autopsy, fingernail clippings, a knife found on the porch of Busby's house and a second knife found in a plastic bag in the house, a towel with the second knife, a jacket next to Busby's body and any hairs found in her hands that were not destroyed in previous testing. Only the hairs were tested previously and those results were inconclusive, according to court documents.

Skinner's trial lawyer, Harold Comer, a former Gray County prosecutor, chose not to test all the evidence because he feared the outcome would be more damaging to his client.

Skinner and his lawyers said the killer could have been Twila Busby's uncle, Robert Donnell, who died in 1997. Donnell, who has been described in court documents as violent when drinking, attended the same New Year's Eve party as Busby while Skinner was passed out at home. She left the party after complaining that Donnell made crude sexual remarks toward her. Partygoers later noticed Donnell also had left.