The young nephews of an American death row inmate started Kids Against the Death Penalty and recently traveled to Geneva, Switzerland to attend and speak at the 4th World Congress Against the Death Penalty.

Gavin, Nick and Nathan Been (12, 13 and 15) are just like any American teenagers – teasing their mom Terri about growing taller than her and asking her to drive them around to meet up with their friends.

Except their uncle Jeff Wood is on Texas death row convicted under the Law of Parties even though he did not kill anyone.

Watch an extract from Gavin’s speech at the “Words of Victims” evening during the World Congress:

Kids Against the Death Penalty from ECPM on Vimeo.

On March 4th, the CCA affirmed the March 24th date for Hank Skinner’s execution, or more exactly it states it doesn’t have jurisdiction to overrule the Judge’s order.

Please help Hank get the DNA testing. I have added a list of newspapers and journalists to whom you can copy your letter to the DA, below:

Hank sent a 5-page letter to the Gray County D.A. Lynn Switzer with a number of exhibits, which was received by her office on January 27th 2010.

These documents can be downloaded in the “legal documents” section – “DNA Issue” paragraph on the website.

Please take the time to read the letter, the exhibits document all the points and statements made by Hank in his letter.

As you will understand from his letter, Hank is asking the D.A. to put the execution warrant on hold, to grant him a 120-day reprieve and order the DNA testing. It is important to support him in this vital attempt. Of course the purpose is NOT to write to the D.A. and attack her for what she hasn’t done or should have done. What needs to be emphasized is that justice calls for the truth and the untested evidence is crucial to prove his innocence. Her position as D.A. is to ensure that justice is served and not to allow the execution of an innocent man when so many issues remain unresolved just a few weeks from his execution date.

You can send your letters with reference “Hank Skinner – Execution Date March 24, 2010” to:

Ms. Lynn Switzer
District Attorney
Gray County Courthouse
Pampa TX 79065

For more impact, you may consider copying your letter to a local media of your choice and also to enclose a copy of Hank’s letter as well. If you do so, make sure you include the information after your signature; ie: cc. Houston Chronicle (whathever newpaper you choose or the journalist’s name). Here is a non-exhaustive short list of newspapers and/or journalists you can cc your letter to:

The Pampa news
PO Box 2198
Pampa TX 79066
Editor bphillips@thepampanews.com

The Amarillo Globe news
Letters to the Editor
PO Box 2091
Amarillo TX 79166
Fax 1 806 345 3400
Letters@amarillo.com

The Houston Chronicle
Roma Khanna – roma.khanna@chron.com

The Austin American-Statesman
Chuck Lindell – clindell@statesman.com
Steven Kreytak – skreytak@statesman.com

The Dallas Morning News
Emily Ramshaw – eramshaw@dallasnews.com
Editor Michael Grabell – mgrabell@dallasnews.com

The Texas Tribune
Brandi Grissom – bgrissom@texastribune.org

CBS News – 60 minutes
60m@cbsnews.com

The Chicago Tribune
Steve Mills – smmills@tribune.com

The Columbus Dispatch
Jeff Dutton – jdutton@dispatch.com

Here are some points you can raise:

– All of the state’s chief investigators and medical examiner on the case testified in pre-trial and trial that they personally collected the evidence in question that we are seeking to test, that they believe evidence would conclusively show who killed Twila, Scooter and Randy. So why won’t they allow it to be tested?

– Both the State’s star witnesses (Andrea Reed & Howard Mitchell) have testified that they believe Hank to be innocent.

– All three of the previous D.A.s have publicly stated that they believe the evidence needs to be tested.

– Article 2.01 of the TX code of criminal procedure compels the D.A. to test the evidence or, allow the deffense to test it.

– The D.A. has admitted in Ch 64 DNA pleadings that the evidence is in a condition making testing possible, that the chain of custody has been maintained, that the evidence is capable of providing a probative result and idendity is an issue in Hank’s case.

– Texas should not execute a man it does not know for a fact to be guilty. After Andrea Reed’s recantation, according to the state own’s experts, the remaining evidence does nothing to prove guilt at all. The A.G has stated through his spokesman that it would violate the constitution to murder someone who is innocent – that has got to apply equally to someone they do not know for a fact to be guilty.

http://www.hankskinner.org

The first 12-minute video below is Judge Fine speaking from the bench. The other two are shorter news reports from KTRK reporters. Click here if you are reading this, but can not see the embedded videos.

From the Houston Chronicle:

A Houston judge who declared the death penalty unconstitutional Thursday clarified his ruling in an impromptu hearing Friday, saying he ruled the procedures surrounding the process in Texas are illegal.

During Friday’s hearing, prosecutors filed motions asking state District Judge Kevin Fine to reconsider his ruling and also to proceed with April’s death penalty trial of John Edward Green Jr. Fine maintained at the hearing that he believes innocent people have been executed.

Fine’s clarification came in the wake of a firestorm of criticism from District Attorney Pat Lykos, the Texas Attorney General’s Office and Gov. Rick Perry protesting that Fine ignored well-settled law.

Fine is expected to rule on the motions next week. He did not return calls for comment Friday.

When asked direct questions Thursday about his ruling, Fine said he was declaring the death penalty unconstitutional because he believes innocent people have been executed.

Dissecting the ruling

Friday, Fine clarified that he declared the procedures Texas has in place to carry out the death penalty unconstitutional, a legal parsing even to the prosecutors trying the case.

“As a practical matter, if you strike down that statute, you’re not necessarily striking down ‘the death penalty’ but you’re striking down the way we try death penalty cases,” said Bill Exley, an assistant Harris County district attorney. “So the effect is that you can’t have a death penalty because you can’t get there.”

Exley and Assistant District Attorney Kari Allen are pursuing the death penalty for Green in the robbery and fatal shooting of Huong Thien Nguyen, 34, on June 16, 2008.

‘Beginning of the end’

Police said she and her sister, My Huong Nguyen, had returned to their home in the 6700 block of Bellaire Gardens about 1:20 a.m. when Green approached them, demanded money and shot them.

Green’s lawyers, Bob Loper and Casey Keirnan, heralded the decision as the “beginning of the end of the death penalty.”

“We don’t necessarily think we’re the ones who will make this happen. But it certainly is a chink in their armor. This is going to raise everyone’s consciousness,” Loper said. “It appears as though it’s going to go up on appeal. It certainly has people talking.”

If Fine’s ruling were to be upheld, it effectively would take away the option of the death penalty in Green’s case.

Most legal commentators said the ruling wouldn’t stand up at the appellate level.

A past president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyer’s Association summed up the mechanics of the ruling.

“He did not rule that the death penalty is unconstitutional,” said Mark Bennett, a criminal defense lawyer. “He ruled that a procedure that allows the execution of innocent people is unconstitutional.”

‘First impression’

In court, Fine said there were no guiding cases on this particular point.

“There is no precedent to guide me in resolving this particular issue,” Fine said. “As far as I know it is an issue of first impression.”

“Based on the moratorium (on the death penalty) in Illinois, the Innocence Project and more than 200 people being exonerated nationwide, it can only be concluded that innocent people have been executed,” state District Judge Kevin Fine said. “It’s safe to assume we execute innocent people.”

From the Houston Chronicle:

A Houston judge on Thursday granted a pretrial motion declaring the death penalty unconstitutional, saying he believes innocent people have been executed.

“Based on the moratorium (on the death penalty) in Illinois, the Innocence Project and more than 200 people being exonerated nationwide, it can only be concluded that innocent people have been executed,” state District Judge Kevin Fine said. “It’s safe to assume we execute innocent people.”

Fine said trial level judges are gatekeepers of society’s standard for decency and fairness.

“Are you willing to have your brother, your father, your mother be the sacrificial lamb, to be the innocent person executed so that we can have a death penalty so that we can execute those who are deserving of the death penalty?” he said. “I don’t think society’s mindset is that way now.”

The motion was one of many submitted by defense attorneys Bob Loper and Casey Keirnan arguing Texas’ death penalty was unconstitutional for their client, John Edward Green Jr.

Loper said he and Keirnan were pleased by Fine’s ruling, which will be appealed and almost certainly reversed.

“It’s pretty traditional in these cases to file as many motions as you can and try to find something the judge finds approaches unconstitutionality,” Loper said.

If Fine’s ruling were to be upheld, it effectively would take away the option of the death penalty in Green’s case.

In their motion, Loper and Keirnan assert, “The system that determines who should die in Texas is truly ‘broken.’ ”

They argued, and Fine agreed, that the law providing for the procedures surrounding instructions to a jury in the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure violate the Eighth and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment and guaranteeing the right of due process.

DA: ‘It has no basis in law’

Green, 23, is accused of fatally shooting a Houston woman and wounding her sister on June 16, 2008.

Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos issued a statement disagreeing with Fine’s ruling.

“Words are inadequate to describe the Office’s disappointment and dismay with this ruling; sadly it will delay justice for the victims and their families,” the statement said. “We will pursue all remedies.”

The statement noted that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and other appellate courts consistently have rejected the same arguments.

“We respectfully, but vigorously, disagree with the trial judge’s ruling, as it has no basis in law or in fact,” Lykos wrote.

Late Thursday, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office issued a news release calling Fine’s ruling “an act of unabashed judicial activism.” Abbott offered to help the Harris County District Attorney’s Office appeal the decision. Fine, the statement said, ignored U.S. Supreme Court precedent in granting the motion.

“We regret that the court’s legally baseless order unnecessarily delays justice and closure for the victim’s family — including her two children, who witnessed their mother’s brutal murder,” the statement said.

Fine’s decision is unlikely to withstand appellate review, said Sandra Guerra Thompson, professor at the University of Houston Law Center.

“You never know, but I don’t see it happening at this time,” Thompson said. “Technically, they’re bound by precedent. There are laws on the books that have ruled on this type of question.”

On bench since 2008

Thompson said trial judges sometimes grant rulings that are unlikely to stand up on appeal to start a dialogue in the judicial branch.

“If they feel strongly enough, sometimes they’ll grant a motion like this to buck the system, just to stir the waters,” Thompson said.

The Anti-Death Penalty Alternative Spring Break is March 15-19, 2010 in Austin, Texas.

Special guests will be six innocent death row exoneress: Shujaa Graham, Curtis McCarty, Ron Keine, Derrick Jamison, Perry Cobb and Juan Melendez. They are attending alternative spring break to speak with participants about how innocent people can end up on death row. Altogether, the six exonerees attending the alternative spring break spent a total of about 65 years on death row for crimes they did not commit.