J4H | Justice 4 Hank Skinner

News July 2004

On July 25, 2004, the Federal magistrate, Clinton Averitte, granted the motion in part, to include all data and bench notes from the private lab that D.A. John Mann paid in 2000 to conduct limited testing on some of the evidence. It was then revealed that the lab misinterpreted the results and simply failed to report other exculpatory results. Worse, the lab (GeneScreen now called Orchid-Cellmark) changed archival software which obscured the underlying electronic data and despite the discovery order granted by the Court, GeneScreen personnel failed to cooperate with Hank’s DNA experts.