44 1/2 minutes long, but well worth watching. I've often wondered what it would be like to be on Death Row and Skinner gives a cursory glimpse of that existence. As the video went on, I found myself in the place of the condemned being driven to the death house, looking out the window along the drive and seeing the beauty...and the ugliest...all the while knowing it was the last landscapes I would ever see.
The video is completely one-sided, the maker of the video making no bones about being against the death penalty. It doesn't paint Pampa in a particularly good light, especially in the scenes where it shows only the worst and ugliest parts of this small town.
I didn't realize it until I watched the video that I used to roughneck with a guy who had, several years prior, lived at the house where the murders were committed; I had driven by there doing some research for the book I had intended to write, but didn't recognize it as the place where my co-worker had lived, that I had been inside the house and visited with him and his family. I don't know why I didn't remember that when I was researching the book.
The windbreaker Skinner speaks about being tested has been misplaced: Evidence Missing in Skinner Case.
Personally, I've gone back and forth on Skinner's innocence; at first, I thought he didn't do it, then was convinced he had. Now, I'm not so sure. The uncle that Skinner claims to have done it died in a car wreck several years later after the murders and another witness* has also passed away. I've interviewed Skinner's ex-girlfriend (whose house he was found at after the murders) and I understand why her recanting her trial testimony has been discounted: she's not a credible witness.
*Witness, in this case, doesn't mean "to the crime" but rather a person with "evidence" offered to prove Skinner's innocence. In this instance, it was someone in jail who claimed to have called the house just before the murders and being told by one of the victims that Skinner was passed out on the couch.
It's going to be interesting to see how this all plays out. As it is, it's a landmark case in how DNA evidence will be treated in future trials and subsequent appeals.
The video is completely one-sided, the maker of the video making no bones about being against the death penalty. It doesn't paint Pampa in a particularly good light, especially in the scenes where it shows only the worst and ugliest parts of this small town.
I didn't realize it until I watched the video that I used to roughneck with a guy who had, several years prior, lived at the house where the murders were committed; I had driven by there doing some research for the book I had intended to write, but didn't recognize it as the place where my co-worker had lived, that I had been inside the house and visited with him and his family. I don't know why I didn't remember that when I was researching the book.
The windbreaker Skinner speaks about being tested has been misplaced: Evidence Missing in Skinner Case.
Personally, I've gone back and forth on Skinner's innocence; at first, I thought he didn't do it, then was convinced he had. Now, I'm not so sure. The uncle that Skinner claims to have done it died in a car wreck several years later after the murders and another witness* has also passed away. I've interviewed Skinner's ex-girlfriend (whose house he was found at after the murders) and I understand why her recanting her trial testimony has been discounted: she's not a credible witness.
*Witness, in this case, doesn't mean "to the crime" but rather a person with "evidence" offered to prove Skinner's innocence. In this instance, it was someone in jail who claimed to have called the house just before the murders and being told by one of the victims that Skinner was passed out on the couch.
It's going to be interesting to see how this all plays out. As it is, it's a landmark case in how DNA evidence will be treated in future trials and subsequent appeals.
