Hank Skinner Part VII: The Physical Evidence

Assuming Andrea Reed was truthful during her recantation, the jury that convicted Hank Skinner and sentenced him to death did not know that Hank was too inebriated to climb a few stairs or to remove his own shirt. Nor did they know that the police, early on, suspected another person was involved in killing Twila, Elwin, and Randy.

It’s easy to understand why the police thought someone else was involved. There were bloody bootprints leading to the front door, though Hank seemingly went out the back. And the bootprints were size 11-12, way too large for Hank Skinner. Hank stands 5’ 9” and weighs 140 pounds. His shoe size is 9½. He was found wearing socks that night, but no shoes. He owned no boots, nor were any found.

Elwin, on the other hand, was a large person, and he apparently left through the front door, mortally wounded. But he was found wearing only a pair a bloody underpants. It seemed likely, therefore, that the boot prints were made by someone other than Hank or Elwin. Perhaps they were placed there by the person who killed three people that night.

Also found were bloody handprints on both the front and back doors. It was unlikely that Hank went out both doors. Hank’s handprints were on the back door, and suggested Hank went out that way. The handprint on the front storm door, however -- well, that’s another story. The investigators removed the glass pane and placed it in the sheriff’s evidence vault for safe-keeping. Someone later scraped the handprint off the glass while the pane was under control of the sheriff. It is not generally known, to this day, to whom that print belonged.

There was also the bloody X-LG windbreaker found laying across a chair just feet from where Twila fell. It was a DNA gold-mine of blood, hairs, and sweat. The state would test none of it though, nor would they allow anyone else to test it. Instead, they would have Twila’s mother testify in trial that her daughter liked to wear over-sized coats. That's way better than testing the DNA of the sweat on the windbreaker.

The center of Hank’s defense seemed to be that Hank was so smashed out of his mind that he couldn’t possibly have committed the crime. Not only did Andrea’s testimony destroy that defense, it tainted Hank as a liar. It gave the jury carte blanche for ignoring every thing Hank or his attorney had to say. If Hank was willing to lie about the foundation of his defense, the jurors would realize, then he would lie about anything big or small.

Had I been advising Hank’s defense team, I would suggested the focus of the defense should be on the other piece of evidence that suggested someone else was there that night. I would have told them to focus on the handprint found on the trash bag. That print was tested, and it did not belong to Hank. That print was Hank’s one best hope to avoid the needle.

Found inside the trash bag were a knife and a bloody dish towel. The dish towel had probably been used to clean the prints from the knife, since none were found there. Whoever put the items in the trash bag left his print on the bag. It wasn't Hank's handprint on the bag, and it wasn't Hank who that night wiped down the knife with the dish towel.

Found on the front porch were a second knife and some bloody gauze. Someone wiped down that second knife with the gauze. That’s the same modus operandi as for those items in the trash bag, the bag with the handprint that did not belong to Hank Skinner.

The items on the front porch were clearly not left by the person who went out the back door; they were left instead by the person who went out the front. That was the same person who left the now-missing bloody handprint on the front storm door; the same person who left the too-large-for-Hank bootprints leading to the front door; the same person who left the not-Hank-Skinner handprint on the trash bag, that contained the towel that wiped the knife that stabbed the victim. And that person wasn't Hank Skinner.

It all led back to the handprint on the trash bag. That print did not then and does not now belong to Hank Skinner.

On to Part VIII: To Test or Not To Test.

Hank Skinner Part VIII -- To Test or Not To Test

*** CORRECTION ***

The exact quote stuck through in the post below came from a Hank Skinner post.  I have since learned the quote was not exact, as indicated by his quotation marks, rather that it was paraphrased.  The error is mine for using the quote prior to substantiating it. -- TSJ


There was so much DNA evidence available in the Hank Skinner case that it is easy to lose track of it all. Even an expensive, colorful, professionally generated graphic would be inadequate to tell all there is to tell. In this part of the Hank Skinner story, I will attempt to remedy the problem somewhat.

###

I begin by summarizing the DNA evidence presented at the trial of Hank Skinner.

Twila’s blood was found on Hank’s shirt and pants. The prosecution argued that it came to be there as Hank bludgeoned Twila with the axe handle, after first having strangled her. The defense claimed it came to be there as Hank fell to the floor while trying to rise from a drunken stupor, thereby coming in contact with Twila’s blood, either on her person or on the floor.

Twila’s blood was found also on Elwin. In this case, the prosecution did not argue that it came to be there as Elwin bludgeoned Twila. The defense argued that Elwin must have been standing in the living room near his mother as she was being bludgeoned. They argued further that a stuporous Hank would have been unable to kill either of them, much less both of them.

Elwin’s blood was found on Hank’s pants. The prosecution argued that it came to be there as Hank stabbed Elwin while they were in the bedroom. The defense argued that it came to be there as Hank fell to the floor while trying to rise from a drunken stupor, thereby coming in contact with Elwin’s blood. Alternatively, they argued the blood came to be there as Elwin attempted to roust Hank from his slumber and help him from the house.

Randy’s blood was found on the blanket that partially covered him. The prosecution argued that it came to be there as Hank stabbed Randy three times in the back while Randy lay on the top bunk. They argued further that Hank cut himself while stabbing Randy, that the knife hit bone and Hank’s hand slid down the knife. That is presumably why they tested the blood on the blanket, expecting to find Hank’s blood there. The absence of Hank’s blood did not deter them from their pursuit.

The hairs found on Randy’s blanket, back, and cheek came from Randy himself. Once again, the prosecution presumably expected them to belong to Hank. They did not.

The handprints near the doorway of the boys' bedroom came from Hank. The print was only eighteen inches above the floor. The prosecution argued that it came to be there after Hank stabbed Randy and cut his hand in the process, and after Elwin tackled Hank as Hank was leaving the bedroom. The defense argued that the blood came to be there as Hank stumbled while trying to make his way out the back door. The defense argued further that Hank had cut his hand on the broken light fixture glass when he fell to the floor in his drunken stupor. Alternatively, his appellate counsel would argue that Hank might have been wounded by the same person who killed the others in the household.

The the handprints on the back door came from Hank. The defense argues that Hank left them there as he exited the house in a stuporous state. The prints on the back door leave unexplained the evidence that the killer exited via the front door.

###

After the trial, DA John Mann (Lynn Switzer’s predecessor, once removed) succumbed to public pressure and sent additional DNA material to GeneScreen for testing. He did so to get people to “shut up” and to “put a few more nails” in Hank’s coffin.

The DNA from the two hairs clutched in Twila’s hand came from an unknown male, possibly a male relative of Twila. This finding posed severe problems for Mann, since he had earlier claimed they definitely “came from the head of her assailant as Twila yanked out his hair during the struggle for her life which she ultimately lost.” Mann dealt with the awkward results by lying about them. He ran a 7-month smear campaign against Hank claiming the testing showed the hairs came from Hank Skinner. Only after Mann left office did the DNA lab issue a written report. That report absolutely confirmed Hank to be excluded as the contributor of those hairs clutched in Twila’s hand. Because Mann had cleverly provided comparative DNA samples only from Hank Skinner and Twila Busby, the results could not prove or disprove the possible male relative to be Twila’s predatory uncle, Robert Donnell.

Blood found on the gauze apparently used to wipe fingerprints from the front porch knife excluded both Hank Skinner and Twila Busby as donors.

Blood found on a cassette tape excluded both Hank Skinner and Twila Busby as donors.

Other hairs sent for testing excluded Hank Skinner as the donor, but did not exclude Twila or a relative of Twila’s as potential donors.

The swab from the rape kit was sent for testing along with the other material in this group. The results of that testing were not included along with the other results. The location of the rape kit evidence is now being kept secret from Hank’s defense team and from the public. It is possible, indeed likely, that results from the kit excluded Hank Skinner and are still being suppressed, even as Hank’s execution nears.

The fingernail material was sent for testing along with the other material in this group. The results of that testing were not included along with the other results. The location of the broken fingernails and associated DNA evidence is now being kept secret from Hank’s defense team and from the public. It is possible, indeed likely, that the results from the fingernail scrapings excluded Hank Skinner and are still being suppressed, even as Hank’s execution nears.

The broken fingernails nonetheless exculpate Hank Skinner. It is likely Twila broke them as she fought for her life, possibly as she clawed at her assailant's head and came away with several of his hairs in her grasp. We don’t need the DNA from the broken fingernails to tell us they weren’t broken while clawing Hank. He had no scratches on him when he was arrested for her murder.

###

Despite all the DNA material tested both before and after the trial, there remains still to this day substantial DNA material to be tested.

The blood, hairs, and sweat from the windbreaker resting just a few feet from Twila’s body have not been tested.

The blood from the handprint left on the front storm door has not been tested, and may never be tested. The police removed that pane from the storm door, covered the print with firm paper taped around the edges, and stored that pane in the Sheriff’s evidence vault. While under the control of the sheriff, someone scraped the handprint from the pane.

The dish towel from the from the trash bag was not tested, despite a possible blood stain on that towel. It’s possible the towel was used to wipe the fingerprints from the knife which was found in the same trash bag. That’s the trash bag that had the handprint that did not belong to Hank Skinner.

The blood on the knife in the trash bag was not tested, though it is likely that knife was the one used to stab both Randy Busby and Elwin Caler. That knife was found in the trash bag that had the handprint that did not belong to Hank Skinner.

The knife found on the front porch was not tested for the presence of blood. It appeared to have none. It seems not to be the murder weapon. That suggests that the blood on the gauze that was apparently used to wipe the prints from the knife originated elsewhere, possibly from the killer.

Most significantly, no DNA sample was ever taken from Robert Donnell. The police never requested a saliva, blood, or semen sample from Twila's maternal uncle.

In Part IX of this X part series: we'll take a closer look at Uncle Robert.

Hank Skinner Part IX: Uncle Robert

Howard Mitchell held a New Years Eve party on the night of the murder. He picked Twila up at her home and drove her to the party. The two of them left Hank behind because he was out cold. Mitchell had been unable to rouse him, even after efforts to physically lift him from the couch.

Mitchell returned Twila to her house soon after she arrived at his party because she was being harassed by none other than her predatory uncle Robert Donnell.

In September of 1994, nine months after the murder and six months before the trial, Howard Mitchell was interviewed by Bill McMinn, an investigator from the DA’s office. Below are excerpts from that interview.

###

Well, we call him Uncle Robert. His name is Robert Duvall [Donnell], I think something like that.

Well, according to my daughter, she said [he left] right after I took Twila home. … He’s real quick tempered and stuff, you know, so I really didn’t hang around with him or nothing. You know, I’d be nice to him, he’s nice to me and all that .

He had … this girl named California Kim. … Him and her got in some kind of drug deal where she was supposed to buy some drugs, took him $350.00 … He wind up in an empty handed deal and he was over at my house one time and he grabbed her by the throat, slammed her up against the wall and said, “I’ll kill you, you son of a bitch, and she was pregnant, you know. And we stopped him, you know, talking and stuff.

And then Doug and this Uncle Robert and Sherry, I don’t know her last name, but they was out at the lake. … Well, Doug, he gets drunk and passes out. Sherry, she was passed out too. But anyway, she wakes up and he’s … got her pants off and trying to get her panties off and she got to kicking and screaming and she woke Doug up, you know. And so Doug talked him out of that bullshit, you know.

And then later on, why he come to town and he stuck a knife in Doug’s stomach, like that, and said, I’ll kill you, you son of a bitch, and then he got it up to his throat and said, I’ll cut your fucking head off. Now that’s strictly confidential, because Doug told me don’t ever tell nobody, but to me.

I’m talking about a man’s life, you know. I’m talking about Hank’s life. I don’t like Hank, you know what I mean? I don’t really dislike him, but I’m not -- we’re not compadres or none of that shit, you know. But I just don’t, my conscience won’t let me keep my mouth shut, you know. I don’t want to see nobody killed that didn’t do it, you know.

I told a detective that, I sure did. I told Harold Comer that. And that’s the truth, too. I’ll take a lie detector test or anything else on it, you know.

I don’t like being involved in none of this shit, you know what I mean?

All I’m doing really basically is I think the man they got [Hank Skinner] is innocent and the other guy [Uncle Robert] is guilty. I really believe that.

I believe this much. If he [Uncle Robert] finds out I said anything like I said, he’s going to come over here and try to kill me and I ain’t got a goddamn gun or nothing else.

And I could be wrong, you know. I could be wrong, but I don’t think so.

###

McMinn, the DA investigator was surprised by what he had learned: “Well that’s the kind of information we didn’t have, you know.” He informed Mitchell that he would be speaking with Donnell: “I’m going to have to talk to him, but I sure won’t tell him where my information came from, but I’m going to have to talk to him. I sure am.”

If McMinn ever talked to Donnell, that interview has been suppressed along with so much other evidence in this case.

The trial took place in March of 1995. The defense introduced evidence that Donnell was a heavy-set ex-convict with a hot temper; that he had sexually molested a girl; that he had grabbed a pregnant woman by the throat; that he usually kept a knife in the trunk of his car; that he became drunk at the party.

Mitchell testified that he "sensed that [Donnell] would be a danger" because he had "a certain kind of hate" in his eyes. Donnell followed Twila around as if he was stalking her and made crude sexual remarks, even though Twila was his own niece. Twila became agitated. Within a half hour of her arrival at the party, she asked Mitchell to take her home.

He testified that Twila was "fidgety and worried" when he dropped her off in front of her house at about 11:00 to 11:15 p.m. Twila got out of his car and walked to her front door without any assistance. When Mitchell returned home to his party, Donnell was no longer there.

Neither the police, nor the DA, nor the defense investigated Donnell with any great interest. Critical exculpatory evidence was never presented in Skinner’s defense.

Two and a half years after the trial, in September 1997, Howard Mitchell filed the following affidavit.

###

I came to know Twila’s uncle, Bob Donnell, when he moved to Pampa a few years before Twila was killed. He showed up at my house every once in a while. I had seen him get violent with people and he always carried a knife. I pretty much tried to stay away from Bob Donnell.

Twila told me about problems she had with Bob Donnell. About four months before she was killed, Twila told me Bob Donnell had been making sexual advance towards her and that he had even tried to rape her. I gave this information to the investigator who work for Hank Skinner’s trial attorneys. She told me this several times.

###

It’s not clear why Mitchell only remembered to reveal this information almost four years after the murder. It seems that Mitchell tended to enhance his memory as time went on. His testimony at trial, for example, included considerably more detail that he included in his interview with the DA investigator. In fact, in that interview when asked if Donnell and Twila had any problems at the party, Mitchell replied: “Not that I noticed. … I wasn’t paying that much attention.”

On the other hand, Mitchell’s story about Donnell’s attempted rape of a woman named Sherry was later confirmed by Cliff Carpenter, an investigator for Skinner’s appellate team. I quote below from his report of February 2001.

###

I have spoken with Willie Mae Gardner. Donnell's widow, who told me that Donnell occasionally talked about having killed a man during a pool hall fight in a small town near Oklahoma City. On some of these occasions, Donnell showed Gardner a scar of what he said was a knife wound from the fight.

I have also spoken with Deborah Ellis, the granddaughter of Willie Mae Gardner, who told me that she witnessed Donnell "choke" and "push around" Gardner numerous times.

I spoke with Jimmy Hayes, a close acquaintance of Donnell. Hayes told me that Donnell always carried a large knife either on his person or in his pickup truck. Hayes also told me that once Donnell had attempted to slash Hayes with the knife. and cut Hayes' shirt but did not injure him. I have obtained the shirt, which has a cut across the left breast pocket.

Hayes also stated that on several occasions, Twila Busby called him to come over to her house to protect her because she was as afraid of Donnell. Hayes' wife Dorinda confirmed this.

I have spoken to Sherry Barnette, who told me that summer before the murders of Twila Busby, Randy Busby, and Elwin Caler, Donnell attempted to rape her at a lake near Pampa. During the assault, Donnell tried to "choke her down." Barnette also said that she had been at Twila Busby's house on several occasions when Busby bad to run Donnell off because of his temper.

According to Willie Mae Gardner, on the night of the murders Donnell arrived home very late or in the early morning hours. The police came to Donnell's home to notify him of the deaths. Gardner recalled that the police knocked at the door at approximately 6 a.m. the morning after the murders, and Donnell said he would go see who was there. He returned. few minutes later and stated Twila and the boys had been killed. Gardner specifically recalled that Donnell was emotionless when he conveyed this news.

According to Willie Mae Gardner, Donnell repainted his pickup truck within a week of the murders. The truck had been white and Donnell painted it blue.

According to Deborah Ellis, within a week after the murders. Donnell also thoroughly cleaned out the interior of his pickup truck. He took out the interior carpet from the floorboard. and thoroughly washed. the plastic seat covers and interior of the truck with a water hose. This was unusual, as, according to Willie Mae Gardner, Donnell was a man who had to be told to take a bath.

###

I doubt that even the damning information revealed in Carpenter’s report, had it been revealed during the trial, would have saved Skinner. Assuming Donnell killed Twila and her sons, the defense needed to place him at the crime scene. Had they done that, the jury would likely have set Skinner free.

Harold Comer, Skinner’s over-priced and under-motivated attorney, made no effort to place Donnell at the murder scene, though he had obvious opportunity to do so. He could have had tested the blood, hair, and sweat left at the scene against Donnell’s DNA.

Even if he had been unable to obtain a sample of Donnell’s DNA, he could have determined if the DNA evidence was consistent with a male, maternal relative of Twila. That in fact happened after the trial. The hairs found clasped in Twila’s hand, the hairs pronounced by the DA to belong to the killer, turned out to come from a male, maternal relative of Twila. They did not come from Hank Skinner. According to the standard set by the DA before the testing, those hairs exonerated Hank Skinner.

Even in the absence of testing any DNA, the defense could have compared prints found on the trash bag with those of Robert Donnell. He wouldn't have even needed Donnell's permission. Donnell’s prints were already on file due to his frequent encounters with the law. That trash bag contained the knife with the blood on it, and a bloody dish towel probably used to wipe prints from the knife. Whoever put the knife and dish towel in that trash bag left his signature behind in the form of hand and fingerprints.

It is inconceivable that no one has ever compared the prints from that trash bag against those of Robert Donnell. The authorities certainly understood the significance of those prints. They compared the prints against those of Hank Skinner, only to be surprised they did not match. Are we to believe they didn’t take the few minutes necessary to check them against those of a man identified by several people as the likely killer?

Are we to believe that?

And finally, the tenth and final part of this series: The End.

Hank Skinner Part X: The End

Compare the two photos below.  They are nearly identical. Nearly.

The student of history will recognize the photos to be of Vladimir Lenin surrounded by supporters and random members of the proletariat. That’s Lenin in the center. He’s wearing the dark coat that extends to the bottom of the photo.

Even a casual observer will realize that the second photo is simply an altered version of the first. Several people have been removed. Working counter-clockwise from Lenin’s head, the following people in the first photo are missing from the second: the man in the upper left corner with the pronounced full-facial beard and moustache; the man in the lower right corner with the dark eyes and dark beard; and the man just to the right of Lenin, the one with the hat and glasses, the one saluting.

I can’t identify either of the first two people who have gone missing. The third person, the one saluting, is Leon Trotsky. He criticized Stalin’s leadership, was exiled to Mexico, assassinated there, and removed from the Soviet’s official history.

The two photos are not oddities. They are not unusual, nor are they examples unique to the Soviet Union. Oppressive states sustain themselves in part by controlling information. People disappear from photos as they disappear from life; data are altered; inconvenient results suppressed or destroyed.

Even states that consider themselves enlightened, as do they all, fall victim to the temptations of controlling information.

I find it inconceivable that the prints lifted from a trash bag, containing a bloody knife, found at a murder scene, would not automatically be compared against state and federal fingerprint databases. I find it simply inconceivable.

I find it suspicious that a rape kit sent for post-conviction DNA testing, sent “to put a few more nails in that man’s coffin,” would simply disappear. As did the man with the full-facial beard.

I find it too convenient that broken fingernail clippings sent for post-conviction DNA testing, sent because John Mann “knew that bastard was guilty”, would simply vanish. As did the man with the dark eyes.

I find it deplorable that the state of Texas would refuse to reveal even the location of that rape kit and those fingernail clippings, to refuse even to acknowledge their very existence.

I find it reprehensible that the state of Texas, via its representative John Mann, would for seven months inform its citizenry that the hairs found clutched in Twila Busby’s lifeless hand justified its intent to kill Hank Skinner, when in fact that very evidence exonerated him.

And I find it execrable that those who have the power to intervene refuse to do so, refuse to insist that the DNA be tested and the fingerprints be compared prior to the execution of one of their own.

Harold Comer Part I: Fiscal Foibles

Ed Wood is frequently credited as the worst movie director of all time. Responsible for such movies as Plan 9 from Outer Space and Glen or Glenda, Ed plumbed the depths of mediocrity with a panache unmatched to this day. While many have tried to be as bad as Ed, few have succeeded.

Ed’s story is well told in the movie Ed Wood, with Johnny Depp portraying the B movie master. In one of the great lines from that movie, Ed declared: “Why if I had half a chance, I could make an entire movie using this stock footage.”

With that in mind, I do hereby declare Harold Comer, Hank Skinner’s defense attorney, to be the Ed Wood of the legal profession. This honor is bestowed not only because of Mr. Comer's ineptitude in his defense of Hank Skinner, but also because of Comer's practice of creating legal motions out of stock footage. Even before Comer was officially appointed to represent Hank Skinner, he filed 21 motions on Hank's behalf. Each of those 21 motions was copied verbatim from a Texas capital murder defense manual, with a scanner, and then signed.

Ed Wood would have been proud.

In honor of Harold Comer's newly bestowed title of The Ed Wood of the Legal Profession, I will be running a brief series of posts about his career as a defense attorney. I begin by detailing his fiscal foibles. In the spirit of Ed Wood, I will create this post primarily by cutting and pasting. In this case, though, I will extract my work from a quality product, rather than from some grainy government film. I will cut and paste from an appeal prepared by Hank’s skilled and dedicated appellate attorney, Rob Owen.

So hang on. Here we go.

###

Harold Comer was a close political supporter of the trial judge and was himself the former elected district attorney for Gray County. Comer had been run out of office for embezzlement of public funds and drug abuse. As district attorney, Comer prosecuted Mr. Skinner for two of the felonies that were used against Mr. Skinner at the sentencing phase of his trial.

There is nothing in the record to show that Mr. Skinner was told by Comer or the trial judge of the deleterious effect this conflict would have on his case or that he had a right to a different lawyer. Throughout the trial, counsel failed to present evidence or conduct cross-examination that would have exposed the weaknesses in the state's case. Yet, by the time the trial ended, the court had awarded Comer one of the largest fees ever collected by a court-appointed lawyer in Texas - enough to help Corner payoff some of his obligations to the Internal Revenue Service for filing false tax returns. Comer's conflict of interest was never explained to, or knowingly waived by, Mr. Skinner.

On May 2, 1994, Comer met with Judge Sims to discuss his fee. The 31st Judicial District Court only had $25,000 budgeted to pay for the services of all of the attorneys who represented indigent criminal defendants that year. Comer and Judge Sims knew that the county commissioners would have to greatly increase the funding for that item to compensate Comer for his work in Mr. Skinner's case.

On May 9, 1994, Judge Sims signed an unusual "Payment Agreement" that guaranteed Comer an hourly fee of $100 plus expenses with no cap. Written contracts for the 60 professional services of court appointed lawyers are almost unheard of in Texas. In virtually all cases, the fee for services performed outside of the courtroom is at least 25% lower than the hourly payment for court appearances. Formal caps on total fees are common and informal caps are usually enforced in practice. None of these limitations were contained in Comer's Payment Agreement.

On May 17, 1994, Comer collected a payment for the first of many interim bills that he submitted. Comer charged the county $3,452.87 for the services that he performed between January 10 and February 24, 1994, before Judge Sims formally appointed him. Included in that statement was a fee of $450 for merely copying from a form book the 21 motions that he filed on February 9, 1994. The law prohibited any compensation for any of the services that Comer performed prior to his formal appointment, but Judge Sims signed his voucher.

On May 22, 1994, the first negative story about the cost of Mr. Skinner's defense appeared in a local newspaper. The County Judge warned that the cost would "far exceed" the amount budgeted for all indigent criminal cases that year. She suggested that it might be necessary to borrow the money or use other funds that were designated for indigent health care and a hospital.

In an effort to make the payment of his fee more palatable to the public, Comer announced to the press that he "voluntarily" used $2,000 of his first check to reimburse Gray County for costs that it incurred in a whistle blower law suit as a result of his mishandling of public funds when he was district attorney.

Comer collected about $80,000 in interim payments for attorney fees. The County Commissioners had to raise local taxes to pay him. No other attorney in the history of Texas has been paid as much money for representing an indigent defendant in one criminal case as Comer collected for defending Mr. Skinner.

Several of the finest capital defense attorneys in the State could have been hired to take the case at that price. There were at least ten skilled criminal defense attorneys in the nearby cities of Amarillo and Lubbock with significant capital trial experience who were paid only $20,000 to $40,000 to represent indigent capital defendants in comparable cases at about the same period of time.

###

That wasn’t so hard. Maybe some day Johnny Depp will star in the the movie Harold Comer.

In Part II of this series, I’ll cut and paste a chilling tale of Comer’s close ties to both the judge and the prosecutor who judged and prosecuted Hank Skinner.