Supreme Court rules in favor of prisoners in DNA case

WASHINGTON  The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 Monday that prisoners may bring a civil rights claim to try to obtain DNA evidence and assert their innocence.

The justices revived an appeal from Texas death row inmate Henry Skinner, whose execution the justices blocked last year within an hour of when he was scheduled to be put to death.

A jury convicted Skinner in 1995 for the Dec. 31, 1993, murders of his girlfriend Twila Busby and her two adult sons. Skinner has long maintained he was incapacitated after ingesting large quantities of alcohol and codeine that New Year's Eve and was unable to commit the murders.

He has said in court papers that the likely killer was his girlfriend's uncle — an ex-convict, now deceased, who had a history of physical and sexual abuse. For about a decade, Skinner has been seeking crime scene evidence to try to prove his innocence. Before Skinner's trial, Texas officials conducted DNA testing on some of the evidence, but not all.

In Skinner's current appeal, lower federal courts ruled he could not assert a federal civil rights claim to obtain analysis of the remaining, untested items years after conviction.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the high court's opinion, which reversed that stance and made clear that prisoners may bring such a federal civil rights claim. Yet the court noted that state laws still curtail to varying degrees prisoner access to DNA evidence and their ability to bring a new claim of innocence.

Ginsburg stressed that a key Supreme Court ruling from 2009 "severely limited the federal action a state prisoner may bring for DNA testing" in the face of restrictive state laws regarding DNA evidence.

So while Monday's decision enhances prisoners' ability to assert a claim for DNA testing, the decision offers no guarantees an inmate would be allowed access to the evidence. DNA testing has led to the exoneration of more than 250 people in 34 states, according to the Innocence Project, which helps prisoners establish their innocence through DNA analysis.

Ginsburg noted that Texas officials have offered "several reasons why Skinner's complaint should fail for lack of merit" and that the court was not addressing those arguments Monday.

A Texas law enacted in 2001 allowed prisoners to gain DNA for testing after conviction in limited circumstances. They have to show a "reasonable probability" that the tests would prove innocence.

"We express no opinion on the ultimate disposition of Skinner's federal action," Ginsburg said as she read portions of her opinion from the bench. Ginsburg was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

Justice Clarence Thomas dissented, joined by Justices Anthony Kennedy and Samuel Alito.

Thomas said the majority ruling would add to more prisoner appeals and delayed justice. "What prisoner would not avail himself of this additional bite at the apple?" he wrote.