Death penalty

The Supreme Court made the right decision in blocking the e

execution of a Texas man who has been refused DNA testing that could prove his innocence.

The temporary reprieve gives the high court time to decide whether it will hear the appeal from Hank Skinner, who received word of the stay just an hour before he was scheduled to die for a 1993 triple homicide.

State and lower federal courts had rejected Skinner's request to have DNA testing on evidence that was not tested at the time of his trial. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted against sparing his life. Texas Gov. Rick Perry had not decided on a delay to permit the testing.

Prosecutors objected to testing of evidence that was not analyzed at the time of his trial. But given the record of DNA testing in reversing convictions nationally and in Texas, the testing should be automatic.

"While I understand that Mr. Skinner was convicted of a brutal triple murder, remember that 11 other people on Texas' death row have been convicted of brutal murders over the years before they were exonerated," wrote Houston state Sen. Rodney Ellis in support of a stay.

Nationally, DNA testing has led to the reversal of hundreds of convictions, including inmates on death row. The same day the Supreme Court stepped into the Skinner case, a Broward County, Fla., man was exonerated of rape and murder after spending 26 years — more than half his life — in prison.

The high court's order does not mean it will take up the case, but the delay gives Texas authorities the time to reconsider their arbitrary refusal to give Skinner the chance he is asking for to prove his innocence.