WEBVTT - #268 Maggie Freleng with Hank Skinner 0:00:00.800 --> 0:00:04.640 Maggie, what did you take away from your recent visit 0:00:04.720 --> 0:00:08.880 to death Rout? Was there something surprising or you know, 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:11.160 was it kind of what you expected? 0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:14.680 I mean, I think I was surprised that the person 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:19.040 I was visiting is still in good spirits after having 0:00:19.560 --> 0:00:23.720 multiple stays of execution, being within twenty minutes of being 0:00:23.840 --> 0:00:28.479 killed by the state, having that last meal, the fact 0:00:28.560 --> 0:00:34.040 that he can still smile, make jokes, be excited for life. 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:34.519 Still. 0:00:35.159 --> 0:00:36.680 I don't even know how to put into words the 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:37.040 way that it. 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:39.320 Made me feel, but I think it made me feel 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:42.680 like so many of my problems in a daily basis 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:45.760 are so insignificant, and I think that was just so. 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:49.280 The willpower is amazing. 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:57.520 Well, tex is crazy and they've tried to kill me 0:00:57.600 --> 0:01:01.960 five times, so I believe that they were very serious 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:05.600 about that. But I think with the evidence we have 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:10.040 now that there's no way they're going to have to 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:12.360 let me go, and they're going to have to acknowledge 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:13.200 that I'm innocent. 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:15.040 I don't see any other way. 0:01:18.120 --> 0:01:21.400 From Lava for good. This is wrongful conviction with Maggie 0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:36.840 Freeling today Hank Skinner on December thirty first, nineteen ninety three, 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:39.920 thirty one year old Hank Skinner was pregaming for a 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:42.440 New Year's Eve party. He was with his girlfriend of 0:01:42.520 --> 0:01:45.800 seven months, forty one year old Twila Busby, and her 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:51.120 two adult children, Scooter and Randy. Hank passed out before 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:55.600 ten PM from a potent combination of vodka, codine, and xanax. 0:01:56.080 --> 0:01:59.240 Despite his condition, Twila left for the party without him. 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:02.280 When she turned she was strangled and bludgeoned to death. 0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:06.800 Her two sons were stabbed to death. Hank was the 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:11.400 sole survivor and was instantly the prime suspect, despite evidence 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:14.480 that Hank was incapable of committing these murders and that 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:18.919 another more probable person of interest exists. Hank has spent 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:23.320 nearly thirty years on Texas death row awaiting execution. 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:27.799 I'm sixty years old. 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:30.640 I've spent my whole, the best years of my life 0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:32.720 in here, from thirty to sixty. 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:36.880 I want out of here. I shouldn't be here. I 0:02:36.919 --> 0:02:38.480 never should have been here to start with. 0:02:52.960 --> 0:02:56.079 Hank Skinner was born on April fourth, nineteen sixty two. 0:02:56.600 --> 0:02:58.520 He's the oldest of four kids. 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:00.480 I'm from Virginia, Okay. 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:02.960 I was born in the foothills of the Blue Ridge 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:07.400 Mountains in Franklin County, Virginia, which is the moonshine capital 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:08.840 of the United States. 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:11.880 His dad was part of the local industry. He was 0:03:11.919 --> 0:03:14.440 a foreign car mechanic as well as a moonshiner. 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:18.720 See had three eight hundred gallons steam steels and fired 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:21.720 on butane. He made the best sugar liquor you've ever drank, 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:26.639 and see moonshine. If it's made correctly, it's a lot 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:30.359 better than store bought liquor. And so my dad's stuff 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:33.120 burned clear, and I mean he was about one hundred 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:34.960 and forty proof. You can just get a four ounce 0:03:35.040 --> 0:03:37.160 glass to do ice cubes. 0:03:36.800 --> 0:03:38.240 And sip on it all. 0:03:38.440 --> 0:03:40.400 So did you just grew up drinking moonshine? 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:41.360 Yeah? Sure. 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:42.760 When was the first time you drank it? 0:03:43.600 --> 0:03:46.440 Six years old? And I stole it from my dad. 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:53.040 Growing up, Hank felt like he had the best parents 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:55.640 in the world. He takes pride that he was named 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:56.960 after his dad. 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:00.680 I'm actually a junior, but when my dad passed, I 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:03.160 took his name and so now I'm just Henry Skinner 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:04.040 Hank Skinner. 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:06.000 Hank is a nickname for Henry. 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:10.720 He loved Hank Williams sor and I love Hank Williams 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:12.800 Junior and Hank the Third. 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:13.680 I love them all. 0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:14.880 Yeah. Out of the same. 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:17.159 Way, Hank learned a lot from his dad. 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:20.400 Like my dad, he taught me how to slaughter hogs 0:04:20.440 --> 0:04:21.360 and slaughter. 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:24.160 Cow and he worked for his dad too young. Hank 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:26.159 was a skilled laborer and free spirit. 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:30.239 We were just a bunch of wild, rambunctious kids having 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:33.720 a good time. We had field keg parties and cow pastors. 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:37.599 There was bikers up there everywhere. That's who I grew 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:38.039 up with. 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:42.120 But Hank also had a soft spot for the female 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:44.880 role models in his life. Like his mom and grandma, 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:47.920 Hank grew up learning a lot from them, including how 0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:48.719 to respect women. 0:04:51.560 --> 0:04:54.479 If you want to find out anything in life that 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:55.400 really means. 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:56.800 Something, find out from a woman. 0:04:57.440 --> 0:05:01.039 They know how to do everything, and so I can sew, 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:04.400 I can alter clothes. I used to make dresses for 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:08.560 my little sister on my mama's sewing machine. I make quilts. 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:10.520 I know how to do everything. I know how to 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:12.840 can vegetables, you know, out of the garden. We used 0:05:12.839 --> 0:05:15.240 to do this every year. Where the women aren't the shit. 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:16.360 That's all there is to it. 0:05:16.520 --> 0:05:17.200 You know what I mean. 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:23.880 Hank also learned a lot about women after he married 0:05:23.960 --> 0:05:24.520 quite young. 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:29.320 I was nineteen, my wife was sixteen, and we had 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:31.720 just gotten married because she was already pregnant. 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:36.040 I had a daughter, Natalie Joe. I was so in 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:37.520 love with her when she was born. 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:41.520 Natalie Joe was the light of Hank's life, but Hank's 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:44.839 marriage to Natalie Joe's mother was another story. He and 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:47.719 his wife struggled to get along. According to Hank, she 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:49.520 had substance abuse issues. 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:52.760 She was strung out on cocaine. Well, we had a 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:56.400 big argument to fight going on all the time, and so. 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:00.960 She's my daughter. Stayed with her mother. That was the 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:04.240 only thing that was acceptable to her. My mama wanted her, 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:07.719 but she wouldn't let my mama have her. And so 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:11.280 my wife was doing crazy things when we divorce. 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:15.080 So I just said, fuck this, I'm done. I left 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:17.200 and I went first to Georgia. 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:20.800 They're in Georgia. Hank worked at a casino who's high 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:24.360 earning customers were catered to by women. 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:26.480 And these are gamblers and they're high rollers, and so 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:28.200 they want woman on their arm. 0:06:28.360 --> 0:06:28.560 You know. 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:31.920 Hank took it upon himself to look out for these. 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:33.880 Women if they get two hands. 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:36.440 Yet'm like, you know, I'm the guy who steps in 0:06:36.480 --> 0:06:38.279 and tells them, no, no, no, you know it. 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:39.359 Can't be doing that. 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:43.920 And so you ever seen that movie Roadhouse with Patrick Sways, 0:06:44.520 --> 0:06:47.160 Because that's what I did. I was a cooler just 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:49.400 like he was in that movie, but not in a 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:53.159 bar in the gambling establishment. And so I lived in 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:58.240 an old, old ramshackle rooming house that had three stories 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:00.520 and had big stucco porch on the top. And so 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:02.479 I could sit up there and drink beer and smoke 0:07:02.560 --> 0:07:04.880 weed and watch all the cars go by and holler 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:05.640 at the girls. 0:07:06.080 --> 0:07:07.480 I was the rooster of the hymn house. 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:10.560 I had it all in his mind. Hank was living 0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:11.400 the life. 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:13.560 So how'd you wind up in Texas? 0:07:13.760 --> 0:07:16.240 So when I came out here, I came out here because. 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:19.440 I wanted to break out in the oil field, because 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:21.240 I heard about the oil field. It was a good 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:23.320 place to make money, and I did. I made a 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:27.240 lot of money out here. I ended up moving to Pampa. 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:28.680 It's an oldfield. 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:32.680 Town, and Pampa Hank found kindred spirits in the lifestyle 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:35.960 he enjoyed, but soon he was charged and convicted for 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:39.240 unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and was on parole. 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:41.840 He started going to AA as part of his parole, 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:44.160 and that's where he met Tila Busby. 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:48.880 These two guys were picking on her, and so I 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:51.080 dried up for tears and I talked to her and 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:52.160 got her all right. 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:57.120 She was just they were just drilling. I mean the 0:07:57.160 --> 0:07:58.320 way they were, mister, what. 0:07:58.240 --> 0:07:59.280 Were they picking on her for? 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:03.000 She's a whore or she's a sorry bitch? She drank 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:04.920 you know, she ain't never go sober up. 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:10.239 It was just horrible. So anyway, I ended up giving 0:08:10.240 --> 0:08:11.040 her a ride home. 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:13.800 On the way, Hank asked if she wanted to stop 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:20.600 for a cup of coffee. 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:21.720 And we sit down and started talking and it was like, 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:25.440 just like instantly, we've been together for fifty years. 0:08:25.560 --> 0:08:28.200 I mean, she was so easy to talk to. 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:32.840 And she told me, she said, I have never met 0:08:32.880 --> 0:08:34.560 anybody like you in my life. 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:37.400 What are you some kind of magician? And I'm like, 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:39.520 why do you say that? She said, I don't know. 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:42.040 But since I sit down and just started talking to you, 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:43.960 I just started feeling some kind of way. 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:49.040 Twila and Hank started spending all their time together. 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:51.319 Twilight and I our soulmates. 0:08:51.720 --> 0:08:53.480 We could just look at each other and know what 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:55.720 Kinether was thinking and what to say, you know. 0:08:56.920 --> 0:08:58.880 And whenever we went to another people's house. 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:01.199 She always said, in my life, people said we were 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:03.920 like two high school kids and we were so in love. 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:06.000 Well, she was a lot older than you, right. 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:10.040 Ten years, that's not a lot. 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:18.280 Twila had two sons, Elwyn, who went by Scooter, was 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:21.720 twenty two and Randy was twenty, and Hank took on 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:23.840 the young men as his own. The three of them 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:27.439 had even worked together in a landscaping business. Hank had 0:09:27.480 --> 0:09:30.679 a previous hand injury that left his right dominant hand 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:34.720 virtually useless, so the boys were a big help. 0:09:35.240 --> 0:09:37.240 So I laid out the plans and showed them what 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:38.839 to do and how to do it, and they did 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:41.640 all the manual labor and we made good money. 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:47.439 Everything was going great for Twila and Hank until seven 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:50.560 months into their relationship New Year's Eve nineteen ninety three, 0:09:50.960 --> 0:10:05.840 when it all came crashing down. This episode is underwritten 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:10.240 by AIG, a leading global insurance company. AIG is committed 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:14.400 to corporate social responsibility and to making a positive difference 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:17.360 in the lives of its employees and in the communities 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:20.160 where we work and live. In light of the compelling 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:24.160 need for pro bono legal assistance, and in recognition of 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:28.680 AIG's commitment to criminal and social justice reform, the AIG 0:10:28.880 --> 0:10:33.040 pro Bono Program provides free legal services and other support 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:45.720 to underrepresented communities and individuals. On December thirty one, nineteen 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:49.360 ninety three, Hank, Twila, and Twila's sons were all at 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:52.920 home preparing for their evening celebration. Although it could be 0:10:52.920 --> 0:10:56.840 a dangerous combination, Hank took some xanax and drank the 0:10:56.880 --> 0:10:59.920 better part of a fifth of vodka, and then he 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:04.640 accidentally started sipping Twila's drink, not realizing that she had 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:06.960 spiked it with codine. 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:07.720 Back in class. 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:11.520 Looked the same as mine, and I grabbed it and 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:14.200 drank from it, and I had no. 0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:15.760 Idea what was in it. 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:19.160 Hank wound up passing out that night from the combination 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:22.560 of substances. He also says he's allergic to codin. 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:26.200 It makes me sick, it gives me vertigo. 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:31.760 I can't stand up, it makes me very lethargic, I 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:35.520 lose my balance, I can't talk well. It feels like 0:11:35.559 --> 0:11:39.480 my throat was constricting, like my lungs are full of cotton. 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:41.000 I can't get a deep breath. 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:43.040 Do you remember feeling any of that? Were you already 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:43.640 really drunk? 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:47.280 I remember feeling all of that before I passed out. 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:52.560 Around ten fifteen pm, Hank and Twila's friend Howard Mitchell 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:54.800 came to pick them up to drive them to attend 0:11:54.800 --> 0:11:57.839 his New Yar's Eve party. When Howard arrived, he found 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:01.679 Hank in a practically comatose state. He tried to rouse 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:05.439 his friend but got no reaction. According to Howard, Hank 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:08.760 was out cold, so he and Twila left for the 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:10.040 party without Hank. 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:13.920 So but nobody called nine one one to make sure 0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:14.480 you're okay. 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:17.880 We're all a bunch of partiers. Everybody passes out. How 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:19.480 many times a year have been no party? 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:20.360 And that's three or four? 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:24.040 Motherfucker's land on learn in the corners And I've been 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:25.400 passed out before. 0:12:25.160 --> 0:12:26.440 But not like that. 0:12:32.440 --> 0:12:35.720 At the party, Twyla encountered her uncle, Robert Dennell. He 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:40.080 was incredibly drunk, following Twyla around and making sexual advances. 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:44.480 They had previously had a sexual relationship. Although Twila's consent 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:48.640 to the relationship was questionable. She had allegedly told people 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:52.160 her uncle had raped her more than once. Twila got 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:55.920 uncomfortable and Howard took her home. They arrived back sometime 0:12:56.000 --> 0:13:01.160 between eleven and eleven fifteen after the What happened is 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:06.880 not totally clear, but here's how Hank remembers it. Sometime 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:10.040 that night, Hank says he was shaken awake by Scooter 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:11.800 and when I. 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:15.559 First woke up, I couldn't. I couldn't. I couldn't see 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:19.200 where the fuck I was at. I couldn't. I don't 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:25.120 know it. I couldn't think in words, and I'm seeing 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:28.480 blood all over the walls, but I didn't recognize it 0:13:28.480 --> 0:13:30.679 as well. I'm thinking what in the fuck? And people 0:13:30.800 --> 0:13:32.360 slinging all over this living room. 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:35.760 And so he got me up and he give me 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:37.600 my pants and he told me put them on. 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:40.720 We got to get the fuck out of here. And yes, 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:41.640 and I didn't. 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:44.800 Know that Scooter had been stabbed in the chest and 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:47.800 stomach area, but he was still managing to move around 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:50.520 and was trying to save both of their lives. 0:13:51.240 --> 0:13:53.120 He said, he said, we got to get out of here, Hank. 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:56.680 They're coming back, and I'm thinking who's coming back? What 0:13:56.800 --> 0:13:58.120 the fuck are you talking about? 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:01.760 You remember him saying they were come, yes, yes, and 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:04.480 he was saying it in a high streamed voice. 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:06.440 That's one of the things I remember. 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:10.720 Scooter was a big guy, six foot six and about 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:14.120 two hundred and twenty five pounds, and despite his injuries, 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:16.880 he was able to lift Hank up and help him out. 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:20.280 Was anything registering at this point. 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:28.080 Now feeling whatever has happened is bad. This is bad. 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:29.600 We have got to get the fuck out here. 0:14:30.160 --> 0:14:33.480 But I wasn't thinking in words. I was just thinking 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:34.560 in emotions. 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:40.840 Still unsteady on his feet, Hank started looking around. 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:43.560 But when I did, I lost my balance and fell 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:47.760 face forward in the floor. And so I remember looking 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:50.840 across the floor, got up on my elbows trying to 0:14:50.880 --> 0:14:53.080 get up, and I couldn't do it. And I remember 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:56.160 looking across the floor and I could see my girlfriend, 0:14:56.480 --> 0:14:59.000 and all I could see was a mass of her hair, 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:05.880 blood of black tinting the edges of everything, and everything 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:07.760 was looking alternately red and green. 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:11.200 But her face was gone. 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:16.440 Twila had been strangled and bludging to death. Someone had 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:19.280 hit her fourteen times in the head with the handle 0:15:19.320 --> 0:15:21.880 of a pickaxe, When she was found, her pants were 0:15:21.960 --> 0:15:27.480 unzipped and her shirt was lifted up. As Hank was 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:30.360 still trying to absorb everything, Scooter was pulling him to 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:33.920 go check on his younger brother, Randy, And so we. 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:36.040 Get in the bedroom and he leans me against the 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:39.000 dresser so we can see about his brother. And I 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:41.360 couldn't even stand up, even holding on with the dresser, 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:44.240 and I fell in the floor. And this is something 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:47.720 I remember. I don't remember falling, I don't remember trying 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:51.520 to get up, but I remember looking up at him, 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:53.920 and he's looking at his brother, and he's got this 0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:58.000 horribly sad expression on his face, and so I know 0:15:58.120 --> 0:15:58.640 he's dead. 0:16:01.200 --> 0:16:03.480 Randy had been stabbed in the heart through his back 0:16:03.520 --> 0:16:05.880 while he was asleep. He had died on the top 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:08.040 level of the bunk bed he shared with Scooter. 0:16:09.080 --> 0:16:12.160 That's when I realized my hand was cut, and I 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:15.240 didn't know how it had gotten cut, but I had 0:16:15.720 --> 0:16:19.200 a vague memory of somebody standing over top of me 0:16:19.360 --> 0:16:22.960 with a knife and I threw my hands up and 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:24.880 they cut my hand and it was burning. 0:16:26.320 --> 0:16:30.440 And so I didn't know if that really happened to her, 0:16:30.440 --> 0:16:31.680 if I was just dreaming it. 0:16:33.360 --> 0:16:36.080 Hank wasn't dreaming that his hand was cut. That was real. 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:38.760 He and Scooter moved through the house trying to escape, 0:16:39.080 --> 0:16:41.760 but they were bleeding everywhere, and. 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:44.160 So we got out in the backyard and we went 0:16:44.200 --> 0:16:46.880 through the gate, and I didn't know where we were going, 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:47.640 but we had. 0:16:47.480 --> 0:16:49.360 To get the fuck out of there, that's all I knew. 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:55.000 And so I fell in the alley and he told. 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:57.320 Me, Hank, I can't keep picking you up. And I said, 0:16:57.320 --> 0:16:59.520 don't worry about me, just go go get help. 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:01.600 Got help, and. 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:04.520 So I remember seeing him walk off towards the street 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:09.720 light through the alley. 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:16.600 Hank passed out again, so he didn't know that Scooter 0:17:16.680 --> 0:17:19.160 had made it to the neighbor's porch, where he finally 0:17:19.200 --> 0:17:22.960 succumbed to his wounds and collapsed. A neighbor found Scooter 0:17:23.080 --> 0:17:26.040 and called nine one one, and he was immediately brought 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:30.359 to the hospital. There at twelve forty five am, Scooter died. 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:36.520 When the police showed up and found out where Scooter lived, 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:40.560 they immediately went to the house. When they arrived, they 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:45.600 found a massacre. There was a trail of blood from 0:17:45.600 --> 0:17:48.280 the fence to the front porch. The front storm door 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:52.159 was smeared with blood. Once inside, police found multiple bloody 0:17:52.200 --> 0:17:56.400 handprints on doors and doorknobs in the bedroom, kitchen, utility room, 0:17:56.640 --> 0:18:00.480 and on the door leading out to the backyard, along 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:03.920 with bloody handprints and blood smeared throughout the house. Police 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:07.440 also found a black plastic trash bag containing a wet, 0:18:07.520 --> 0:18:11.639 brown stained towel and a knife. They found the bloody 0:18:11.640 --> 0:18:14.959 pickaxe handle used to bludge in Twila, as well as 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:17.800 a knife that was on the porch. They also found 0:18:17.800 --> 0:18:21.600 a man's windbreaker, and of course, the bodies of Twila 0:18:21.640 --> 0:18:31.040 and Randy. Almost immediately the police started looking for Hank, 0:18:31.320 --> 0:18:34.879 the living boyfriend. They found him at Andrea Joyce Reid's house, 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:38.240 where Hank had gone for help after he came to consciousness. 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:41.399 Andrea was a neighbor and she was also a Hank's 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:44.440 sex girlfriend. Hank became the prime suspect. 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:47.920 The reason he was accused of the crime, I think 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:50.920 is because in fact he was the only survivor from 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:54.600 the scene, which was both very lucky because the assailant 0:18:54.760 --> 0:18:57.919 didn't kill Hank, but it's also very unlucky because it 0:18:57.960 --> 0:19:00.520 meant all the fingers were immediately pointed at him. 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:01.840 This is Rob Owen. 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:05.399 I'm a lawyer. I live in Chicago. For many years 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:08.840 I practiced in Texas doing mostly death penalty cases, and 0:19:09.240 --> 0:19:11.199 during that time was when I became one of the 0:19:11.240 --> 0:19:15.240 members of Hank Skinner's defense team. The police assumed that 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:17.639 this was an open and shot case. They assumed that 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:20.000 he had to be the killer. He had some of 0:19:20.040 --> 0:19:23.359 the blood of Twila Busby and the other victims on 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:25.320 his clothing, for example. 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:28.280 And Hank says the blood very likely came from touching 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:30.199 Twila to see if she was okay. 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:33.439 I think that was all. It was very easy for 0:19:33.480 --> 0:19:35.680 the cops to assume that they had the right guy. 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:40.080 Hank was taken to the police station and booked, but 0:19:40.119 --> 0:19:42.399 he was still so messed up from the alcohol and 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:45.560 codeine that he couldn't even stand on his own while 0:19:45.600 --> 0:19:48.440 his photograph was taken. The police had to hold him up. 0:19:48.640 --> 0:19:51.480 He was eventually taken to the hospital. Hank's cut hand 0:19:51.600 --> 0:19:55.000 was treated and he voluntarily gave blood samples. Results of 0:19:55.000 --> 0:19:58.440 those samples were used to calculate Hank's blood alcohol levels 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:01.040 at the approximate time of the murder. They showed that 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:04.680 at the time, Hank's blood alcohol content was almost three 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:08.520 times the drunk driving standard, and his codeine level was 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:12.199 two and a half times the recommended dose, and so 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:15.000 this is Hank's alibi. 0:20:15.640 --> 0:20:18.600 Hank couldn't have committed this murder of these murders because 0:20:18.720 --> 0:20:22.400 he was simply physically incapable at the time of carrying 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:22.800 them out. 0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:26.560 Remember, Hank was virtually comatose when Howard came to pick 0:20:26.600 --> 0:20:29.000 him up for the party, and Twyla came home from 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:32.439 that party only about an hour later. Hank couldn't have 0:20:32.520 --> 0:20:35.520 possibly sobered up by the time the murders transpired. 0:20:36.400 --> 0:20:39.320 Hank could only have been able to sort of at 0:20:39.440 --> 0:20:43.000 most stand and stagger like That would have been about 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:47.480 the sum of his physical ability based on the volume 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:53.480 of alcohol and codeine in his bloodstream. 0:20:53.680 --> 0:20:56.719 Police searched the house for ten days without a warrant, 0:20:57.080 --> 0:21:00.960 but they failed to collect key evidence, including bloody finger 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:04.840 and handprints. Vaginal swabs were taken from Twila, and despite 0:21:04.880 --> 0:21:08.480 one detective urging him to do so, Gary Stallings, the 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:11.679 criminalist who was leading the forensics team, did not believe 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:15.400 Twila was raped and did not have the swabs tested. 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:19.000 None of the evidence directly linked Hank to the crime. 0:21:19.440 --> 0:21:22.080 Yes his bloody handprints were there, but he also lived 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:24.600 in the house and says he was attacked. There was 0:21:24.640 --> 0:21:28.959 also DNA and at least one handprint that was not Hank's, Twila's, 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:34.280 scooters or Randy's, but despite all of that, Hank was 0:21:34.320 --> 0:21:37.360 prosecuted for the murders. His trial began a little over 0:21:37.359 --> 0:21:41.080 a year later, in March nineteen ninety five, he faced 0:21:41.200 --> 0:21:52.879 the death penalty. District Attorney John Mann was the prosecutor 0:21:52.880 --> 0:21:56.359 in the case. At trial, Man rested his argument on 0:21:56.440 --> 0:22:01.000 two key testimonies, that of state witnesses Howard Mitchell and 0:22:01.000 --> 0:22:04.320 Andrea Joyce read. No actual forensics linking Hank to the 0:22:04.320 --> 0:22:07.919 crime were presented at trial. In fact, Stalling's the criminalist, 0:22:08.280 --> 0:22:11.440