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Henry Skinner Texas Death Row

Henry Skinner was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for a triple murder. According to court documents Henry Skinner would beat to death his live in girlfriend and would stab to death her two adult sons. Henry Skinner has been arguing that DNA would clear his name however that request has been denied by the courts. Henry Skinner would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Henry Skinnner would die on death row in February 2023

Henry Skinner 2022 Information

SID Number: 03304912

TDCJ Number: 00999143

Name: SKINNER,HENRY WATKINS

Race: W

Gender: M

Age: 59

Maximum Sentence Date: DEATH ROW

Current Facility: POLUNSKY

Projected Release Date: DEATH ROW

Parole Eligibility Date: DEATH ROW

Inmate Visitation Eligible: YES

Henry Skinner More News

A district court judge ruled against death row inmate Hank Skinner this week, saying it was “reasonably probable” Skinner would have still been convicted of a triple murder even if recently conducted DNA evidence had been available at his 1995 trial.

Skinner was convicted of murdering his girlfriend, Twila Busby, and her two adult sons, Randy Busby and Elwin Caler, in 1993 at their Pampa home. Attorneys for Skinner had argued for DNA testing in his case for years, and state prosecutors agreed to testing in 2012. Prosecutors argued this year that the new DNA evidence would not have changed the jury’s decision, and the judge agreed Tuesday, keeping Skinner on death row.

Attorneys for Skinner said they would appeal the decision to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Skinner, now 52, has asked since 2001 for new DNA testing in the case to support his claims of innocence. After prosecutors agreed to those requests two years ago, state District Judge Steven Emmert held a two-day hearing in February in Gray County on the DNA evidence.

Defense attorneys Douglas Robinson and Robert Owen have long maintained that the actual killer was Twila Busby’s maternal uncle, who is now dead but displayed a history of violent behavior. Skinner has said he was far too intoxicated from vodka and codeine on the night of killings — New Year’s Eve, 1993 — to commit the crimes.

Tuesday’s brief ruling did not provide details of the judge’s rationale. But it validated state attorneys, who had emphasized that the testing identified Skinner’s DNA at 19 additional spots in the crime scene — among them a knife used in the murders — while failing to provide new confirmation that Busby’s uncle had been there.

Skinner’s attorneys countered that the more than 180 new tests, which examined roughly 40 pieces of evidence, raised a variety of doubts about Skinner’s guilt and the state’s theory of the crimes. Three hairs found in Busby’s hand were identified as dissimilar to those of people living in the house and matched the DNA of a maternal relative. Such evidence, they argued, would have convinced a jury that at least a reasonable doubt existed in the case.

State prosecutors said the matches to someone on Busby’s maternal side of the family came from degraded DNA and could have a number of explanations. Defense attorneys, meanwhile, argued that Skinner’s DNA would already have been on many household items, including the knife, because he lived in the house.

The defense also said the court should have taken a look at a bloody windbreaker found at the scene, which police collected as evidence but the state then lost. The testimony of a witness who could identify the jacket as belonging to the uncle was not admitted as evidence, the lawyers said in a statement, criticizing “the overall unfairness of this process” and “bungling by the State.”

“The judge confirmed once again what the State has said all along: it is clear from all the evidence that Hank Skinner is guilty of the murder of Twila Busby and her two sons,” Lauren Bean, a spokeswoman for Abbott’s office, said in an email. “Skinner got the additional DNA testing he asked for and it further confirmed his guilt. It is time for Skinner to face his court-ordered punishment and quit delaying justice for his victims’ families.”

At the February hearing, much of the testimony centered on the difficulty of extracting results from the DNA testing given the aging and degradation of the evidence, more than half of which produced no results or results that couldn’t be interpreted, the state’s expert said at the time.

The U.S. Supreme Court granted Skinner a stay of execution in 2010 just 20 minutes before he was scheduled to die by legal injection.

https://www.texastribune.org/2014/07/16/judge-rules-dna-evidence-doesnt-exonerate-skinner/

Henry Skinner Death

A man who had been on Texas’ death row for nearly 30 years after being convicted in the killings of his girlfriend and her two sons has died of natural causes, a spokesperson for the state prison system said Thursday.

Henry “Hank” Skinner, 60, died Thursday afternoon at a hospital in Galveston, said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesperson Robert Hurst.

In a statement, Skinner’s attorneys said he died from complications following surgery in December to remove a brain tumor.

Skinner had been scheduled to be executed Sept. 13.

Skinner was convicted of capital murder for the New Year’s Eve 1993 deaths of 40-year-old Twila Jean Busby and her sons — 22-year-old Elwin Caler and 20-year-old Randy Busby. They were found dead in their home in Pampa, located northeast of Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle.

Prosecutors said Skinner used an ax handle to kill Twila Busby and then fatally stabbed her sons, who were both mentally impaired.

Skinner had long maintained his innocence. He had said he was passed out on a couch from a mix of vodka and codeine at the time of their deaths. Skinner and his attorneys had pointed to Twila Busby’s now-deceased uncle, Robert Donnell, as the possible killer.

“Mr. Skinner was still challenging his conviction at the time of his death, and we are deeply sorry that he passed away before those proceedings were complete,” his attorneys said in a statement.

Prosecutors had said traces of Skinner’s DNA were in blood in the bedroom where Randy Busby was found stabbed to death and that his DNA also matched blood stains throughout the house where the murders took place.

Skinner once came within an hour of execution in March 2010 before the U.S. Supreme Court granted him a stay so he could pursue DNA testing of items from the crime scene that hadn’t been tested.

This evidence was not tested at the time of Skinner’s trial as his lawyer had feared the test results would be more damaging to his case.

“I’ve been framed ever since,” Skinner told The Associated Press in 2010. “They’re fixing to kill me for something I didn’t do.”

Testing was done on the additional evidence. His attorneys had argued the results of the testing showed it was “reasonably probable” he would have been acquitted for the slayings if the jury had heard testimony about this additional evidence. Prosecutors had argued most of the DNA evidence implicated Skinner.

In 2014, a judge ruled Skinner probably would have been convicted even if the additional DNA evidence had been introduced at his trial.

In October, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the judge’s ruling.

https://apnews.com/article/legal-proceedings-homicide-galveston-texas-pampa-8c970b29228c84482b36519893e5956d

Victor Saldano Texas Death Row

Victor Saldano was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for a kidnapping and murder of a man. According to court documents Victor Saldano and Jorge Chávez would kidnap the victim from a grocery store and would later murder the man by shooting him multiple times. Victor Saldano who was originally from Argentina would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Victor Saldano 2022 Information

SID Number: 05543981

TDCJ Number: 00999203

Name: SALDANO,VICTOR

Race: H

Gender: M

Age: 50

Maximum Sentence Date: DEATH ROW

Current Facility: POLUNSKY

Projected Release Date: DEATH ROW

Parole Eligibility Date: DEATH ROW

Inmate Visitation Eligible: YES

Victor Saldano More News

A federal appeals court has agreed to review the case of an Argentine man who is on death row for the 1995 killing of a man abducted from a Collin County supermarket.

The decision comes more than two decades after Victor Hugo Saldano, now 45, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced in 1996 to die for kidnapping Paul Ray King from a Sack ‘n Save in Plano.

Saldano and a friend forced King into their car at gunpoint, drove to Lavon Lake and shot him five times.

Saldano, a day laborer from Argentina, was 24 years old and in the U.S. illegally when he killed King. His accomplice, Jorge Chavez, is serving a life sentence.

The case drew attention from his homeland and Pope Francis, who started corresponding with Saldano’s mother, Lidia Guerrero, in 2013and has met with her at least twice. The Catholic Church does not support capital punishment.

Argentine journalists covering the six-day trial told The Dallas Morning News in 1996 that Saldano was the first person sentenced to death from Argentina since it won independence from Spain in 1809.

A judge later threw out the sentence because Walter Quijano, a clinical psychologist, improperly testified at trial that Saldano’s Hispanic background made him likely to be a future danger. Saldano was again sentenced in 2004 to die.

The appeals court wrote that there was “ample evidence” to support Saldano’s incompetency in its decision to consider the case. The court pointed to examples of Saldano refusing to wear nonprison clothes, masturbating in the courtroom, laughing during testimony and rocking in his chair.

“Saldano’s broken and sometimes incoherent speech suggests that he may not have been able to communicate effectively,” the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals wrote.

The court also granted the decision on the grounds of ineffective counsel. Both the trial judge and Saldano’s lawyers had concerns about his mental state, but defense attorneys never requested a competency hearing, the 5th Circuit wrote.

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/courts/2017/06/29/court-agrees-to-review-death-row-case-of-plano-murderer-whose-sentence-caught-pope-francis-eye/

Steven Staley Texas Death Row

Steven Staley was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for a murder committed during a robbery. According to court documents Steven Staley would shoot and kill a restaurant manager during a robbery. Steven Staley was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. There is a bit of controversy surrounding the execution of Steven Staley as the State of Texas is forcibly giving him mental medication in order to make him competent so they can execute him.

Steven Staley 2022 Information

SID Number: 04555961

TDCJ Number: 00999006

Name: STALEY,STEVEN KENNETH

Race: W

Gender: M

Age: 59

Maximum Sentence Date: DEATH ROW

Current Facility: POLUNSKY

Projected Release Date: DEATH ROW

Parole Eligibility Date: DEATH ROW

Inmate Visitation Eligible: YES

Steven Staley More News

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a ruling Wednesday declaring that Steven Staley, a mentally ill death row inmate, cannot be forcibly medicated for the purpose of making him competent for execution; and without medication, the judges decided, he is not competent to be executed.

“We hold that the evidence conclusively shows that appellant’s competency to be executed was achieved solely through the involuntary medication, which the trial court had no authority to order under the competency-to-be-executed statute,” Judge Elsa Alcala wrote in the court’s majority opinion.

Staley fatally shot Fort Worth Steak and Ale restaurant manager Robert Read in the course of a 1989 robbery that came at the end of a four-state crime spree with two accomplices. He was sentenced to death in 1991.

Staley has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Jail staffers have found Staley in his cell covered with his feces and urine. He has bruised himself by banging his head against walls, and he has lain catatonic for so long that he wore a bald spot on the back of his head.

“He believes there is a big conspiracy orchestrated by the state and that everybody, everybody, is part of the conspiracy,” his attorney, John Stickels, said in May 2012. “He believes that he was wrongfully convicted because of the conspiracy.”

Stickels called the court’s decision “the right thing” in Staley’s case.

“It’s not civilized to forcibly medicate someone to get them competent so you can execute them,” he said.

Jim Gibson, an assistant criminal district attorney in Tarrant County, said the decision was disappointing and that the prosecutor’s office is considering what steps to take next in the case. Without medication, he said, Staley will be left trapped with the demons in his head.

“We’ve always thought it was unfortunate that because of his actions he’s consigning himself into a descent into madness,” Gibson said

In February 2006, Staley’s execution was stayed after the court found him mentally incompetent. In 2006, he told psychologist Mark Cunningham that the jury found him guilty because the judge was trying to steal his one-of-a-kind faded red 1958 Pontiac pickup, which he said had a $1.5 million street value, and because Oprah Winfrey paid off the jury.

After that stay, Tarrant County state district Judge Wayne Salvant ordered Staley to be forcibly medicated.

Staley’s attorneys argued to the Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest criminal court, that it was unconstitutional to forcibly medicate inmates for the purpose of rendering them competent for execution.

Tarrant County prosecutors argued that Staley needed to be medicated not solely for purposes of competency for execution but also to protect him from his own frightening delusions and psychosis.

The American Psychiatric Association and the American Medical Association both consider it ethically unacceptable for doctors to provide treatments to patients when the purpose is for execution. And state supreme courts in Louisiana and South Carolina have ruled that forcibly medicating patients so they can be executed violates those states’ constitutions.

The court stayed Staley’s execution in May 2012 to give the arguments in the case more consideration. In Wednesday’s ruling, the court did not answer the constitutional questions about medicating Staley so that he could be competent for execution. Instead, the judges ruled that Salvant did not have authority to order Staley to medicated. And, without that medication, they ruled, he was not competent for execution.

https://www.texastribune.org/2013/09/11/court-rules-mentally-ill-inmate-incompetent-execut/

Chuong Duong Tong Texas Death Row

Chuong Duong Tong was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for the murder of an off duty police officer. According to court documents Chuong Duong Tong would shoot and kill an off duty police officer during a robbery at a food store. Chuong Duong Tong would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Chuong Duong Tong 2022 Information

SID Number:    05928066

TDCJ Number:    00999260

Name:    TONG,CHUONG DUONG

Race:    A

Gender:    M

Age:    45

Maximum Sentence Date:    DEATH ROW

Current Facility:    POLUNSKY

Projected Release Date:    DEATH ROW

Parole Eligibility Date:    DEATH ROW

Inmate Visitation Eligible:    YES

Chuong Duong Tong More News

A Texas inmate can argue that his death sentence is invalid because prosecutors did not disclose their deal with a jailhouse snitch who testified that he had confessed to murder, a federal judge ruled.

A Harris County jury convicted Chuong Duong Tong of capital murder in March 1998 and a judge sentenced him to death.

The jury found Tong guilty of killing Houston police Officer Tony Trinh, who was off duty working at his parents’ Houston convenience store on April 6, 1997, when Tong entered, pulled a Glock handgun and demanded Trinh’s wallet and jewelry.

“Tong attempted to open the cash register. Trinh then identified himself as a police officer, showed Tong his badge, and told Tong that he ‘was not going to get away with this.’ Tong shot Trinh once in the head at close range,” according to U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas’ summary in her Sept. 30 order.

Tong stole Trinh’s jewelry and fled to a waiting car.

Police arrested Tong, then 21, several months later and he was charged with capital murder. He claimed in a statement he gave police that he accidentally shot Trinh while jumping over the store counter.

He said he took apart the gun after fleeing from the store and showed police the storm drains where he dumped threw the parts.

“While in a jail holding tank, Tong told a fellow inmate, Stephen Mayeros, why he was in jail,” Atlas’ 78-page ruling states. “Mayeros asked Tong how close he was when he shot Trinh, and Tong responded by touching his finger to Mayeros’s forehead and saying ‘bang.’ When Mayeros asked Tong if he felt bad about killing Trinh, Tong replied that he felt terrible and cried himself to sleep, and then laughed.”

Several Houston police officers were clients of Mayeros’ home-cleaning business when he was arrested for driving without a license and placed in the cell with Tong.

Mayeros testified that after Tong confessed to him, he mentioned the conversation to one of his police clients, who put him in touch with a detective in the Houston Police Department’s homicide division.

Mayeros’ charges were dropped 10 days after he gave a statement to police.

Tong asked prosecutors for information about any deals they made with witnesses before trial, but they did not disclose their agreement with Mayeros.

“Tong now contends that Mayeros admitted to Tong’s prior habeas counsel, John McFarland, that he got a deal for testifying against Tong,” Atlas’ order states.

Prosecutors must disclose evidence favorable to the defense under the Supreme Court’s 1963 ruling in Brady v. Maryland.

Finding that Tong’s Brady claims should be vetted at a hearing, Judge Atlas ordered his defense and Texas prosecutors to submit a joint report proposing a discovery, briefing and hearing schedule by Oct. 31.

Though Tong raised 16 categories of habeas claims, Atlas approved only his Brady claims. She dismissed all his other claims with prejudice.

“We’re happy that we’re getting a hearing,” Tong’s attorney Jonathan Landers said in an interview, noting how rarely prisoners win relief in habeas cases.

“We’re disappointed that our other claims weren’t granted,” he said.

Landers mentioned another Harris County case involving Linda Carty, the only United Kingdom citizen on death row in the United States, and an unusual post-conviction hearing she got in July after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals told a state judge to consider allegations of prosecutorial misconduct made in witness affidavits.

Harris County Judge David Garner ruled on Sept. 1 that prosecutors did withhold evidence from Carty, but that that was not enough to prejudice the jury.

“The State was operating under a misunderstanding of Brady at the time of the Carty trial. … The Harris County District Attorney’s Office did not believe that impeachment or exculpatory evidence needed to be disclosed if the prosecutor did not find the testimony credible,” Garner wrote.

Garner’s order says prosecutors did not tell Carty’s counsel that they had agreed a witness could avoid prison if Carty received the death penalty.

A jury convicted Carty of capital murder for the death of Joanna Rodriguez, after prosecutors persuaded them Carty suffocated Rodriguez so she could steal her newborn son.

A judge sentenced Carty to death in February 2002, four years after Tong received his death sentence.

Landers said Carty’s case illustrates a pattern of obstruction at the District Attorney’s Office.

“Harris County during this time period was having some problems at the DA’s office of not notifying attorneys about deals they made with clients,” the attorney said.

In capital murder cases, Texas district attorneys’ offices represent the state in state post-conviction appeals; the Texas Attorney General’s Office handles federal habeas appeals.

Harris County Assistant District Attorney Lori DeAngelo is assigned to Tong’s state case. She said Tong’s death sentence should stand even if Judge Atlas decides to suppress Mayeros’ testimony.

“There is more than enough evidence to uphold Tong’s conviction, even without Mayeros’ testimony,” DeAngelos said in an email. “If a hearing is actually held on the issues Judge Atlas set out in her order, I am confident that the Attorney General’s Office will do an excellent job handling the hearing and will ultimately prevail.”

https://www.courthousenews.com/death-row-inmate-gets-one-last-chance/

Charles Thompson Texas Death Row

Charles Thompson was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for the murders of a couple. According to court documents Charles Thompson would murder his ex girlfriend and her new boyfriend. Charles Thompson would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. While being resentenced Charles Thompson was able to escape from the courtroom and would not be recaptured for four days.

Charles Thompson 2022 Information

SID Number: 06086759

TDCJ Number: 00999306

Name: THOMPSON,CHARLES VICTOR

Race: W

Gender: M

Age: 51

Maximum Sentence Date: DEATH ROW

Current Facility: POLUNSKY

Projected Release Date: DEATH ROW

Parole Eligibility Date: DEATH ROW

Inmate Visitation Eligible: YES

Charles Thompson More News

Condemned killer Charles Victor Thompson’s three-day run to freedom ended on a bicycle Sunday night in front of a liquor store in Shreveport, La., police said.

The Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force got a tip Sunday that led Shreveport police and the U.S. Marshals Service to the 200 block of 70th Street, where officers saw a man they thought to be Thompson on a bicycle talking on a pay phone in front of the liquor store about 8:02 p.m. When asked to identify himself, the man replied, “You know who I am.”

Asked again, he responded, “My name is Charles Thompson.”

Thompson, 35, appeared to be intoxicated, and police said they did not know who he was talking to on the phone. He was arrested and booked into the Caddo Parish Jail, where he will be held until he can be returned to Texas, said Lt. John Martin of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. A court hearing is expected to occur today in Shreveport.

The arrest ended a massive manhunt that began midafternoon Thursday when Thompson, under a death sentence for the 1998 murders of his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend, slipped away from the Harris County Jail at 1200 Baker. The inmate, who was awaiting transfer to death row, had gotten loose from handcuffs, slipped into street clothes and convinced jailers that he was a state investigator.

The multiagency manhunt was led by federal fugitive trackers at the Marshals Service through the Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force.

Marianne Matus, spokeswoman for the Houston office of the U.S. Marshals Service, said Thompson was charged on Friday afternoon with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

The charge sometimes is used by federal authorities to avoid extradition delays if a fugitive has left the state. The federal charge allows a bypass of normal extradition proceedings between state jurisdictions proceedings.

She said the search involved numerous leads in Texas and elsewhere.

Thompson, who spent six years on death row, was back in Houston after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that his rights were violated during sentencing in his 1999 trial. A jury here last month sentenced him again to death for the shooting deaths of Hayslip, who was from Tomball, and Cain, of Spring.

Thursday afternoon, after visiting with an attorney authorities have declined to identify, Thompson changed from his jail garb into khaki pants and a dark shirt he apparently kept after the court appearance.

He slipped out of the visitor’s booth, leaving behind his jail uniform and handcuffs. Investigators have not determined how he got out of the cuffs. He then talked his way out of the building, telling deputies he was a state investigator.

Sheriff’s spokesman Martin said Saturday that human error — and likely a little help from some unknown person — made Thompson’s getaway possible.

Matus said the Marshals Service put extraordinary resources into tracking Thompson.

https://www.usmarshals.gov/investigations/most_wanted/thompson.htm