In a last-ditch, desperation attempt to save their client, lawyers for convicted killer Dennis Skillicorn filed a habeas corpus request with the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday, claiming Skillicorn is innocent.
"(Skillicorn) is actually innocent of the crime of first degree murder for which he was convicted and sentenced to death," the petition said. It also claims the trial court erred when it excluded "co-defendant Allen Nicklasson's confession." Nicklasson has also been sentenced to death.
The petition also claims the prosecutor should not have been allowed to introduce evidence "of a murder in Mexico as aggravating evidence due to the fact there was no evidence that any such murder had taken place."
Skillicorn's attorneys claim that "a properly instructed jury would have acquitted (Skillicorn) of first degree murder."
The lawyers are asking for a stay of execution.
Skillicorn is scheduled to die at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.
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