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The United States Supreme Court today delayed the execution of Tommy Arthur, an inmate who’s been on death row in Alabama for twenty years, not because they believe Tommy may be innocent, but because they will soon consider whether lethal injections (the common method of execution in the U.S.) constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

The Innocence Project is calling on Alabama Governor Bob Riley to take advantage of this delay to order DNA testing in the case, but the Governor has so far refused. The testing would take about four weeks and could be completed well before the Supreme Court deliberates on the lethal injection issue.

Why would the Governor refuse to allow the testing? When a man’s life is at stake, shouldn’t every effort be made to ensure justice is done, whether that means proving Tommy is innocent or guilty?

The Innocence Project has prepared a web page through which you can send a message to Governor Riley asking for DNA testing in this case: http://www.innocenceproject.org/testing-for-tommy

In 1996, Chad Heins was convicted of the 1994 murder of his sister-in-law, Tina. After spending 13 years in prison, Chad today became the 209th person in the United States to be exonerated through DNA testing, according to the Innocence Project which was instrumental in securing Chad’s release.

Although Chad’s murder conviction was thrown out last year based on DNA test results from hair and skin samples found at the crime scene, prosecutors prepared to retry him. Last month, additional DNA tests were performed on semen samples taken from the bed of the victim. Those tests indicated that one man was the source of all three samples, and that that man was not Chad Heins.

While the Florida State Attorney’s office in Jacksonville has dismissed all charges against Chad, it has not yet fully acknowledged that Chad is, in fact, innocent. But at least it is continuing to investigate and now has solid evidence that may lead to the real assailant.

The plan had been to split the charges against alleged serial killer Robert Pickton in to two sets. The first six murder charges would be dealt with in one trial, the remaining twenty would be covered in a second trial. The second trial, it was said by prosecutors, would take place regardless of the outcome of the first trial. However, criminal lawyers across Canada say that may not happen.

If Pickton is found guilty, the lawyers suggest, he’d be sentenced to life in prison. Since he couldn’t serve consecutive life sentences, there’d be no reason for the Crown to try the other charges. (This first trial has lasted ten months and cost millions of dollars.)

If Pickton is found not guilty, the Crown would be unlikely to try the remaining charges since the six from the first trial were chosen because they represented the Crown’s best case. With no reasonable expectation of a conviction, the Crown would be hesitant to proceed.

Either way, canceling the second trial likely wouldn’t sit well with the families of the victims. While only six charges are being dealt with in Pickton’s present trial, the families of all the victims, as well as a huge group of citizens, have taken a very deep and personal interest in this case. The families of all the victims, not just the first six, want their day in court.

In 1994, Lynn DeJac, of Erie County, N.Y., was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of her 13-year-old daughter, Crystallin Girard, and spent 13 years in prison. On November 28th, 2007, Judge John Michalski released DeJac and ordered a new trial when DNA collected at the scene of the crime was found to implicate DeJac’s boyfriend, Dennis Donahue.

Unfortunately, during DeJac’s initial trial, Donahue was granted immunity for testifying against her and cannot be charged in the crime.

Of course, even if Donahue did murder Crystallin, it doesn’t mean Crystallin’s mother was not also involved. This may be what prosecutors hope to prove. But even if they succeed in convicting her for second-degree manslaughter she will not return to prison; she’s already served the maximum sentence for that charge.

The trial of Robert Pickton is now in the hands of the jury. Pickton is on trial in British Columbia, Canada for the murders of Sereena Abotsway, Marnie Frey, Andrea Joesbury, Georgina Papin, Mona Wilson, and Brenda Wolfe.

So far the jury has heard from 128 witnesses, listened to a week of closing statements from the prosecution and defense, and received three days of instructions from the judge. Evidence has included such gruesome details as testimony from a witness who claims she saw one of Pickton’s alleged victims hanging from a meat hook, to examinations of severed and split skulls.

Regardless of the outcome of this trial, Pickton’s days in court are far from over. He still faces an additional 20 murder charges that it was determined would have overwhelmed a single jury.