Twenty-six Kachunks (For Hank Skinner) - Evan Phoenix And The Raven Hosts

Описание: This song is inspired by and dedicated to Hank Skinner, a man who spent years on Texas' death row for murder.

Despite strong evidence of his innocence, Skinner was convicted and sentenced to death. His case gained widespread attention thanks to a documentary called "On Death Row" by Werner Herzog, in which Skinner recounts his experience of being driven to the death house in Huntsville, Texas - before receiving a last-minute stay of execution.

Skinner became a legal trailblazer, challenging the system on the grounds that Texas' rules for post-conviction DNA testing were too restrictive. In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed him to sue, and in 2012, Texas agreed to test key evidence. The results were explosive: DNA from another individual was found at the crime scene, and other evidence such as a jacket, did not belong to Skinner.

However, the prosecution lost the jacket. Ten years later, in February 2023, while still on death row, Hank Skinner passed away from complications following brain surgery, having never been granted the freedom he had long sought.

This music video includes footage from the documentary, featuring the bridge that death row inmates cross on their way to the death house: “The Walls” in Huntsville, Texas. While riding in the prison van, Hank Skinner counted the expansion joints on the bridge. He said there were “Twenty-six kachunks.”

Twenty-six Kachunks (For Hank Skinner)
Evan Phoenix & The Raven Hosts
Colorado Abides
Words written & Music composed by Evan Phoenix
© Algonquin Records 2025

Footage Courtesy Channel 4 / Investigation Discovery © 2013
“On Death Row”
Produced by Werner Herzog