Step 1 Grievance filed 10-26-09 Hey! Here it is!

STATE GRIEVANCE: I am actually innocent of the capital murder of my
girlfriend and her sons, Twila Busby, Scooter Caler and Randy Busby
on December 13, 1993 or, at any time before or after that date. Like
my friend Todd Willingham before me, “I am an innocent man convicted
of a crime I did not commit and for the last 13 years I have been
persecuted for something I did not do”. The state of Texas is in
possession of material evidence in this case which will prove my
innocence but which it has steadfastly refused to allow me to test.
Since May of 1994 I have publicly proclaimed my innocence and, in
letters to trial counsel, I’ve demanded testing of anyone who would
listen. I have consistently filed litigation seeking testing in
every state and federal court that would hear it. This evidence
consists of a knife wrapped in a bloody cup towel found at the scene
inside a black plastic trash bag bearing someone else’s fingerprints;
a bloody knife allegedly found on the front porch; blood and skin
under the nails of my girlfriend’s hands; a rape kit; hairs, sweat
stains and blood from a man’s X-LG 44-46 windbreaker found beside my
girlfriend’s body. The U. S. Supreme Court has ruled that I have a
liberty interest in proving my innocence. The Texas Attorney
General’s office, through its spokesperson, has recently conceded
that it would violate the Constitution to execute (murder) an
innocent person. I AM THAT PERSON. In 2000 the district attorney
promised my advocates in a public statement that he would test all
the evidence, but he lied. The Court of Criminal Appeals invoked an
inquisitory style of address in this matter where it applauded the D.
A. for unilaterally and selectively testing only evidence he thought
would implicate me and, withholding evidence from my expert that was
exculpatory, while chastising my expert for being forced to work from
incomplete data. This action has resulted in a violation of due
process and denial of fundamental fairness, caused a miscarriage of
justice and violated my rights under the 1st, 5th, 6th, 8th and 14th
amendments to the Constitution. The current D. A. admits of this
evidence that chain of custody has been maintained; that the
evidence exists in a condition making viable testing possible; that
the evidence is capable of providing probative results; that identity
was/ is an issue in my case and that the request is not made for
purposes of delay. Despite all this, the state still refuses to
allow me to test this evidence and prove my innocence at my own
expense. The state has also actively covered up and suppressed
evidence of my innocence.

Action requested to resolve your complaint: That I be given access
to test this evidence, to prove my innocence, so that I am not
executed/murdered for a crime I did not commit.

/s/ Henry W. Skinner
#999143 H. W. Hank Skinner October 26, 2009

Now that I got that straight I want to let y’all see this guy Allan
Turner of the Houston Chronicle like he really is.

I first met Turner in early March of 2007 in relation to a story he
wrote about Roy Pippin and conditions on death row titled “Inmate
fighting to bitter end” “refuses food” in the Chronicle March 18th,
2007. That story is recounted here for your perusal. Unfortunately
Roy was executed March 29th, 2007 proclaiming his innocence “to the
bitter end” as well. RIP, PP.

INMATE FIGHTING TO ‘BITTER END’, REFUSES FOOD

By Allan Turner, Houston Chronicle, March 18, 2007

Livingston – Life on death row, says Roy Lee Pippin – condemned for
killing two men in a Harris County narcotics murder – a living hell.

And unless courts spare his life, Pippin says, he plans to go to his
March 29 execution on an empty stomach. He’s trying to draw
attention to what he considers horrendous conditions at Texas’
massive ultra-maximum- security death row.

A one-time air conditioner repairman, Pippin has spent almost 12
years on death row, roughly half of them at the forbidding, electric
- and barbed-wire encircled Allan B. Polunsky Unit just west of
Livingston. Pippin 51, the latest in a series of inmates who have
stopped eating to protest prison conditions, started his hunger
strike on February 19 and had lost more than 20 pounds.

Pippin, who consumes only water, undergoes daily medical evaluation.
If his condition seriously deteriorates, doctors could order that he
be fed intravenously.

“I’m going to carry on this hunger strike to the bitter end,” Pippin
said.

Pippin’s protest came weeks after a January Amnesty International
letter to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice alleged that death
row conditions violate international human rights agreements.
Specifically, the London-based group took issue with policies that
keep killers isolated in small cells for as long as 23 hours a day
and with bans on television viewing, work programs, group recreation
and religious services.

Such “inherently inhumane” treatment, amnesty’s Susan Lee complained
to TDCJ director Brad Livingston, can cause severe physical and
mental harm.

Given the enormity of its death row – 377 men are held at Polunsky
and 10 women at Gatesville – Texas long has been a lightning rod for
such complaints. Texas has executed 387 inmates since the death
penalty was restored in 1976, more than the other 49 states combined.
Though hunger strikes erupted at Polunsky in October and January and
the prison has been blasted by groups such as the American Civil
Liberties Union and the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty,
TDCJ has remained unmoved.

Public safety considered

TDCJ officials canceled an interview with death row warden Billy
Hirsch, scheduled for this report.

“All of our decisions regarding death row are based on public safety
and security,” said prison spokeswoman Michelle Lyons.. “Our job is
to incarcerate these individuals. We provide them with medical
care. We give them three square meals a day.”

Prison is not a “country club,” said Cathy Hill, whose husband,
Harris County sheriff’s deputy Barrett Hill, was murdered as he
chased a suspect in December 2000. “For people who think it is
inhumane, I’d say what was inhumane was what was done to the victim
and the victim’s family.”

“One thing people must remember: These are criminals,” said Les
Baquer, whose daughter, Farah Fratta, was killed in a 1994 murder-for-
hire scheme plotted by her ex-policeman husband. “I personally have
sat in their cells. Obviously they are locked up for 23 hours, but
they put themselves there. I didn’t. As far as I’m concerned, they
need to be punished.”

Baquer’s daughter was murdered by Howard Guidry, one of seven
condemned killers who tried to break out of the Ellis Unit’s death
row on Thanksgiving night nine years ago. Guidry and five others
surrendered when guards opened fire. The seventh inmate, Martin
Gurule, escaped. His body later was recovered from a nearby creek.

The episode marked a sea change in Texas prison policy.

By early 2000, Ellis’ aging death row was closed, its population
relocated to what is now called the Polunsky Unit.

In their new home, inmates were confined to 60-square-foot cells – 20
square feet smaller than the enclosure recommended by the American
Correctional Association – and subjected to a reduction in
privileges. No longer were they allowed to engage in group
recreation sessions or attend group religious services. Officials
eliminated work programs, contending that Gurule and others used
their time in Ellis’ garment factory to plan their escape. At
Polunsky, inmates no longer could watch television, although a Dallas
state representative has introduced a bill this session that would
restore that privilege.

Pippin, condemned for murdering two men he thought had stolen $1.6
million from his Colombian drug bosses, yearns for the Ellis days.
“We could go without handcuffs,” he said. “We could work in the
garment factory or go down the hall to talk to friends.”

Now, Pippin’s primary chance to talk to other inmates comes during
solitary recreation sessions in a day room near the other cells.
Theoretically, he could yell to – but not see – inmates in
neighboring cells. But at death row, which is noisy 24 hours a day,
Pippin can’t hear. “Too much rock ‘n’ roll,” he said of his damaged
hearing.

He complains, too of the fluorescent lighting in his cell, which he
claims has damaged his vision, and of the “child-sized” portions of
food. (A typical day’s menu consists of three pancakes for
breakfast, a 4-ounce pork cutlet for lunch and a 4-ounce hamburger
patty for dinner, all accompanied by vegetables, fruit and bread.)

Guards always watching

Most galling, though, Pippin said, is the lack of privacy prisoners
experience in the camera-mounted death watch cells in which they
spend their final days and caprice of guards. “A guard will be
standing at your door with a tray of food in his hand and you’ll have
to play sit and fetch and beg for him to pass it in,” he said. “This
has nothing to do with security and everything to do with control.”

“He’s given you the specific problems,” said death row inmate Henry
Skinner, after eavesdropping on a death row interview with Pippin.
“The overall problem is that this place is designed to break people
down, to make them easier to manage. Death row is designed to whup
your (butt).”

Skinner, who once filed a lawsuit against TDCJ over death row
conditions, said problems with prison staff dramatically have
improved. But isolation remains a critical problem.

“That’s especially a problem with inmates who can’t read or write,”
he said. “They end up just sitting in their cells…A lot of times,
when stimuli are reduced, you start to focus minutely on every little
thing. You start to lose association. Have you ever known someone
you’d call “scatterbrained” ? Well, that’s what it is like. You’re
in a fog. You start to think the walls are closing in on you.”

Leslie Dupuy, a mental health official with the University of Texas
Medical Branch’s inmate-care section, said mental health workers have
250 “clinical encounters” with death row inmates each month.
Currently 65 male death row prisoners receive ongoing mental health
services.

RESOURCES

POLICIES OF LEADING EXECUTION STATES

Texas

. Number executed since 1976: 387

. Death row population: 387

. Work program: No

. Contact visits: No

. Group recreation: No

. Group religious services: No

.Television: No

Virginia

. Number executed since 1976: 98

. Death row population: 19

. Work program: No

. Contact visits: Yes

. Group recreation: No

. Group religious services: No

. Television: Yes

Oklahoma

. Number executed since 1976: 84

. Death row population: 84

. Work program: No

. Contact visits: No

. Group recreation: Yes

. Group religious services: Yes, but inmates not released from cells.

. Television: Yes

Missouri

. Number executed since 1976: 66

. Death row population: 48

. Work program: Yes

. Contact visits: No

. Group recreation: Yes

. Group religious services: No

. Television: Yes

Before I get into Allan Turner himself (in a previous NHHN I called
him a ‘futz’) let me comment briefly on the story itself. In the
04-01 NHHN ‘09 I dealt with the long term effects of solitary
confinement and presented D. Stuart Grassian’s affidavit on it. So
there’s no question these conditions drive men mad and violate our
constitutional rights.

Michelle Lyon’s (of TDCJ’s PIO) statement that “all of our decisions
regarding death row are based on public safety” is both misleading
and deceptive. There is a 144,000 volt lethal stun fence all the way
around 12 building, which houses death row. That’s inside of and in
addition to the double rowed, razor wire topped perimeter fences and
gun towers. There’s no escape from here and conditions inside this
building have nothing to do with “public safety or security.”

“Our job is to incarcerate these individuals. We provide them with
medical care. We give them three square meals a day.” I can tell
you, “incarceration” does not require the onerous conditions here in
order to maintain safety or security. It’s very debatable whether
we’re fed “three square meals” a day or, at any interval. The USDA
food guidelines for a semi-sedentary man 30-50 are 2400 – 2600
calories per day, and for younger, active men 2600 – 2800 calories
per day. The current rations TDCJ serves are 1200-1600 calories per
day, maybe. Medical care has become even more sketchy ever since
UTMB announced that CMHC was losing dollars on its 10 million dollar
annual contract with TDCJ and could not continue providing adequate
care under that situation. Yes, “child sized portions of food,” too,
as PIP said.

When you read this story and see what I said about the isolation,
compare that to the NHHN #16, which is an affidavit about what was
done to me recently, which mistreatment is continuing.

Another thing Turner’s story failed to address is that every death
row (D.R.) in the United States has television and telephones except
Texas and, the telephone access even Texas population prisoners have
is 10 times more restrictive than anywhere else. So believe me when
I tell you, death row prisoners are psychologically (if not
physically) tortured in Texas on a daily basis.

Let me also make clear, that is not the warden’s fault, it’s not the
major’s fault. It’s how the place is designed and built, the model
upon which it is run by the administration in Huntsville. The warden
didn’t build it, he just manages it. They hand it to him “as is” and
say “here’s how we made this, work with it.” He’s got some leeway in
how he runs, it, but not with the major issues addressed by Turner.

O.k., so Mr. Turner interviews me after he accuses me of
“eavesdropping” on his and Pippin’s interview. Pip and I were old
friends. He told me when I got out there, “Listen to what I say and
when you talk to Turner, if I missed anything, you hit it and, put it
all in constitutional dimension for him, o.k?” I’m “cool, gotcha.”
Pip had me called out there just to back him up, which I did, to a
fault.

You wouldn’t know that by Turner’s story tho’, huh? He took one tiny
part of what I said and made it seem as if I were saying Pip was
crazy. What I was actually talking about was what an SHU is, what it
does to people’s minds and more importantly, how that’s been know by
prison administrators and system directors for over 100 years.

What happened here? Well, Allan Turner wanted dirty laundry. He
wanted to me talk bad about Warden Hirsch and, his plan was to relate
my comments to Hirsch in a subsequent interview with Hirsch himself.
He was gonna juice Hirsch up, inflame him. I viewed that as very
unnecessary and counterproductive to the cause at large. Warden
Hirsch is pretty transparent and forthright in what he thinks, kinda
gruff, not very diplomatic. I wasn’t gonna be cannon fodder for
Turner and let him wreck Warden Hirsch like that. Fortunately I
didn’t have to worry about that; Michelle Lyon’s cancelled Hirsch’s
interview. PIO is touchy. They do public information and make
statements; they don’t want others jumping out there.

Turner asked me who would vouch for my interpretations of conditions
law etc. I told him it was not my interpretations at all, but 37
years of U. S Supreme Court and Federal courts of Appeals and Federal
District Courts decisions on constitutional issues in a prison
setting. I gave him the names and addresses of law professors who do
conditions law, prestigious law school and prison projects, the ACLU
National Prison Project’s David Fahti then now of Human Rights Watch
and Margaret Winter, the Lewisburg Prison Project, Morris Dees of the
Southern Poverty Law Center, David Dow of the University of Houston,
SHU expert Dr. Terry Kupers, Craig Haney, Steve Martin and Stuart
Grassian. The best there are.

Instead of contacting any of those people and doing a professional
piece, Turner instead went “rabid tabloid” like a National Enquirer
reporter and went to a bunch of haters and so-called “victim’s rights
and advocates” like those quoted in the story – Cathy Hill, Les
Baquer, etc. I’m sorry for those people’s losses but they do not
determine what constitutes constitutional or humane treatment in a
prison setting. So their opinions are irrelevant. “As far as I’m
concerned they need to be punished.” Yes, maybe so. But we are not
here to be punished. Our punishment is assessed at death. We get
our punishment when the state takes our lives. In the meanwhile we
are to be only “safely and securely held” by TDCJ; the state is
prohibited from punishing us in any form outside our sentences except
pursuant to a valid disciplinary conviction, period. Yet they find
all manner of means to punish us further anyway, all in the name of
“security” and, that’s exactly what Roy Pippin was complaining about.
I explained all of this to Turner but he totally ignored it in favor
of hate baiting and inflammatory agitprop. This run me hot! I wrote
Turner and let him know it.

Turner had also questioned me about me case. I told him I was
innocent and I sent him all the evidentiary documentation I had
which was exculpatory. I have some pretty powerful evidence of my
actual innocence, DNA Str/mt DNA, police reports, forensic reports,
affidavits of experts, photographic evidence etc. In any other state
besides Texas I’d already been home drinking a cold beer 10 years
ago. But no, not in Texas….not. in.Texas!

Turner went prima donna on me and threw a fit. Read this e-mail he
wrote my wife October 23rd 2007.

“Dear Sandrine,

Mr. Skinner has sent me extensive material on his case. He is most
aggressive in seeking publicity. (1) I terminated my previous
interview with Skinner at the point he suggested reporters for the
“mainstream media” lacked integrity, I’m sorry, I’m not prepared to
have my integrity, my judgment, my anything questioned by a capital
killer. (2) From what I’ve seen of the records, it seems pretty clear
that Skinner is guilty of his crime, despite his wheedling,
disingenuous claims to the contrary. (3) Altho’ decent people can
disagree on the morality of capital punishment, I think I behooves
everyone involved in the debate NEVER to forget the nature of the
people on death row. (4) I have looked into conditions on death row
and they are severe. Prisoners are severely isolated in small un-air
conditioned cells, exercise periods are limited, etc. (5) But given
the seriousness of the crimes committed by these individuals and the
record of past escapes. I’m not convinced heavy security is
unwarranted. (6) While I am eager to here (sic) of alleged cases of
brutality by guards (7) those of Mr. Skinner excepted. (8) I must
confess I have not yet seen credible evidence of problems. (9) Thank
you for your e-mail. I trust that you are well….”

I’ve numbered his statements at the end of each relevant sentence or
train of thought. By the numbers, are my responses, then:

(1) If you were sitting here about to die for a crime you did not
commit and, which the evidence shows you did not commit and, they
were killing people all around you about one a week, would you not
want the public at large to know about it and, to help you? So,
would you not be “most aggressive” in “seeking publicity”? If it were
not for strong public opinion on executing the innocent Troy Davis
would already be dead today.

(2) If Allan Turner is not open to “having his…anything” questioned
by an alleged “capital killer” or anyone else maybe he has a lot to
hide, yeah? Turner didn’t terminate any interview with me, TDCJ did
when our hour was up. I questioned this miserable little man’s
integrity because of the sorry way he intended to waylay Warden
Hirsch. As I’ve said plenty of times before, I don’t like Hirsch
very much. But that aside, Turner’s intended method of ensnaring him
was no way for a supposedly fair, objective reporter to go about it;
i.e. Turner is not fair or objective. As to his “capital killer”
bit, guess I struck a nerve, eh? See (3) below.

(3) The “records” Turner refers to are documentary evidence of my
innocence referenced above. If you’d like to see them, go to
www.hankskinner. org. As anyone who knows me will tell you, I don’t
do “wheedling” or “disingenuous” , I do evidence and facts. It’s odd
Turner would say it’s “pretty clear” I’m supposedly “guilty” when
every reporter who’s even written about my case for the Associated
Press and Houston Chronicle has questioned my “guilt”. Apparently
Allan Turner didn’t bother to research prior stories of his own
newspaper, eh. But more than that, in a recent e-mail, February 12,
2009, to a friend of mine, Professor David Protess of the prestigious
Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism who has
exonerated 13 innocent prisoners in 2 years time and many more since,
who investigated my case in 2000 and turned up much of the evidence
of my innocence we have today, said that, “I still believe Hank
Skinner is innocent and I wish him every success in his fight for
justice.” Professor Protess, besides teaching journalism, is also
the director of the Medill Innocence project. Al Jazeera English
News, the most highly respected news organization in the world, last
year did an hour long expose on my case and several others:
www.youtube. com/watch? v=95Ppsn9Q& feature=channel on “American
Justice: Fatal Flaws.” In light of all this, who is Allan Turner?
A nobody. Obviously.

(4) “Never forget the nature of people on death row” ? ! And uh, this
guy is objective? I’m going to tell you all something that shocked
me when I came here. Based on the snarling, evil looking characters
I’d seen in the papers and fully expected to be fighting for my life
amongst them every day. What I found instead were just ordinary
people, some of whom had made terrible, tragic mistakes in their
lives and killed someone. I’m not the only innocent one here. It’s
true, there are a few who are truly twisted but they have mental
illness; they’re not the “evil monsters” D. A.’s and media hypers
like Turner make them out to be. Apparently little Allan Turner
believes his own hype. That’s sad.

(5) That’s all true. It’s much worse than just that, but that’s
certainly some of the problems here.

(6) Past escapes? Before the escape attempt 11 years ago, there’s
been no escape from death row since the mid 1930’s! And, the escape
attempt in 1998 was the direct result of mismanagement and
mistreatment by a torturous, petty tyrant assistant warden who liked
to abuse minorities. After innumerable Gestapo style, “seek and
destroy” type “shakedowns” , unwarranted gassings and beatings, being
kicked, while cuffed behind their backs, down metal cleated stairs
and otherwise brutalized beyond imagination, they just decided “hey,
if we’re gonna be mistreated like this and they’re gonna kill us
anyway, let’s just try to go.” Who could blame them? Everyone seems
to forget why Tabler called Senator Whitmire: He was desperately
seeking help over death row conditions! Even for an idiot like him,
you got to know, things must be really bad for him to take a risk
like that You know the real reason people like Whitmire so badly
fear our having direct communication with you all out there and why
they retaliate against me for writing this column? They fear the
TRUTH! They fear you will see what I know: that there are only human
beings in here, like you out there, that they’re killing in here; it
could be your brother, cousin, dad or friend or you. Not all of them
are guilty and, of those that are guilty they’re not the murderous
demonic beings the state and the papers make them out to be. You
know who needs these false images, to hate and despise? You do! Ha/
ha. All politicians know the “us and them” mentality garners votes.
They spoon feed it to you and rabble rouse your hatred in order to
stay at the public trough and keep sloppin’ that hog they sold you!
“Vote for me” I’m tough on crime!” Ha/ha who’s the real demon? You
should know, you voted for him! Ha/ha ha ha.

(7) He’s “eager to here (sic) of alleged cases of brutality by
guards”? Sure. That’ll sell newspapers. There is no outright
brutality by guards here; in one or two isolated incidents there’s
been excessive force used but it’s rare. What’s brutalizing death
row these days are these cell configurations, sensory deprivation and
isolation – not just from each other but from the outside world at
large. Read the New Yorker article by Atul Gawande, Annals of Human
Rights March 30th 2009 titles “Hellhole” after my “Hell Hole News”
which I’ve written for years and which is available at
www.hankskinner. org. It’ll speak for itself.

(8) That’s rather callous, eh. Again, Turner’s objective? Ha/ha!

(9) Non saper verdere, i.e. Turner is blind because he wishes to be.
I told Turner truthfully what are the problems here, I gave him
credible, concrete evidence to back it up: empirical, statistical,
actual, documentary and expert opinion evidence from the nation’s
leading experts on SHU, positive-negative reward reinforced behavior
modification, sensory deprivation, sleep deprivation, purposely
induced stress and anxiety, semi-starvation of prolonged durations,
excessive disciplinary case writing and prolonged periods of extreme
and severe disciplinary case conviction restriction, conviction of
spurious cases as retaliation, intentional destruction of prisoner’s
meager property and possessions, removal and confiscation of
treasured objects like family photos, religious items like Bibles,
scapulars, funeral notices of deceased loved ones, anything they know
means something to you, that’s what they take. Eventually you become
a broken hull. There’s nothing left. They took it all. Anything to
rob you of your identity, your heritage, your beliefs, or your
physical needs, right down to your hair grease and dental flossers,
your soap, comb, shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrush and medications,
your pens, envelopes, stamps and paper, your boxer shorts, t-shirts
and thermals, in the dead of winter. This place is made of concrete
and steel. You think it’s cold out there? Ha/ha. Try this cell and
this bunk in winter, which is on an outside wall, 6″ away from it.
That wall radiates ice cold air. Psychological torture “mind f**k by
Mattel” we call it. I think this form of torture is more insidious
and evil than if they just jerked me out of my cell and beat me
senseless.

The beating is acute and rough, but in minutes it’s over. So you
spit out your broken teeth, lick

your wounds and go on. But this psych torture, it goes on forever.
It seeps into your pores and eats you alive one bite at a time. I’ve
watched a lot of guys go nuts here and this I’m describing is how it
happened. Fortunately for me, like that Ace comb they stole from me,
I’m “unbreakable. “

Respects to you all,

Hank

999143 Polunsky Unit
H W Hank Skinner
3872 FM 350 South
Livingston TX 77351-8580

http://www.hankskin ner.org

h.w.skinner@ gmail.com
hwskinner@yahoo. com

P. S. Something I forgot. You’ll notice Turner equates
unconstitutional conditions and torture with only “heavy security”.
That is an intentional gaffe of a person who is punitive minded. In
another Supreme Court decision the justices held that prison
officials can subject us to certain actions that would otherwise
violate our constitutional right, if it is absolutely necessary in
the exercise or pursuance of one of three legitimate governmental
goals or objectives: security, order or discipline. So TDCJ has
literally made a mantra out of “security” as excuse for every onerous
and oppressive, draconian and inhumane action visited upon us. They
run around here squawking “security! security! security!” like
parrots without feathers. Well, there’s a way to have security in a
real sense and have humane conditions, too. You see, Turner gives
himself up, if you just carefully follow and understand what he is
saying. The “security” excuse was so abused that the justices,
reinterpreting it in a later case, made it an affirmative defense
that prison official respondents have to plead as a defense and prove
by a preponderance of the evidence. So now, they’re merely claiming
“oh, that’s a security issue” is not enough; they have to plead it
and prove it up, otherwise the courts won’t accept it as an excuse
for mistreatment or, onerous, oppressive conditions. 9/10ths of the
abuse prison officials subject us to is done under the guise of being
necessary in furtherance of “security”. I fully explained all these
concepts to Turner; I gave him the short course in Conditions Law
101. As I’ve quoted Goethe and Nietzche 10,000 times “Beware all
those in whom the urge to punish is very strong”.

That’s it! Whew! Finally.

Slainthe’!

Hank
aka *sthanakvasi

*spelling on that is o.k. It’s Russian or Slav for “peckerwood” and
it means “He stands upright!” “straight up”, etc. Phonetically: s-
tha, nak, vas e’