Hearing to protect hair of executed criminal reset
San Jacinto Newstimes - October 2007

COLDSPRING – A temporary restraining order to protect the hair of career criminal Claude Jones, who was executed Dec. 7, 2000, has been postponed in San Jacinto County.
According to San Jacinto County Criminal District Attorney, a hearing set for Oct. 24, to protect the hair from being destroyed so that death penalty activists could have DNA testing done, has been reset until after Jan 1, 2008.

Jones was executed in Huntsville for the November 1989 robbery-murder of Point Blank liquor store owner Allen Hilzendager.

The only physical evidence from the crime scene was a 1-inch fragment of hair that was linked to Jones through microscopic examination. On the eve of Jones’ execution, then-Gov. George Bush denied a request for a stay so that the hair could undergo DNA testing. Bush earlier had endorsed such testing in life-or-death cases.

Since Jones’ 1989 trial, the hair has been locked away in the San Jacinto County District Clerk’s office.

Concerned the hair was going to be destroyed, a group of anti-death penalty activists, including The Texas Observer, a liberal Austin-based magazine, and New York-based Innocence Project, filed suit in state district court seeking release of the hair for mitochondrial DNA testing.

However, Burnett contends that death penalty activists do not have legal ground to gain access to the hair.