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A Texas man with a history of violence against women was put to death on Wednesday for the kidnapping, rape and murder of a college student from the community. suburb of Houston, more than 20 years ago.
Larry Swearingen, 48, said his death sentence was a lethal injection at Huntsville State Penitentiary for the murder of 19-year-old Melissa Trotter in December 1998.
She was last seen leaving her community college in Conroe, and her body was found nearly a month later in a forest near Huntsville, about 70 miles north of Houston.
Swearingen, who has always maintained his innocence in the death of Trotter, is the twelfth inmate killed this year in the United States and the fourth in Texas, the busiest state in terms of capital punishment. Eleven more executions are planned in Texas this year.
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Prosecutors claimed that they were standing behind the "mountain of evidence" used to convict Swearingen in 2000. They described him as a sociopath with a criminal record of violence against women and men. have even tried to convince another death row prisoner to take him to himself. criminality.
Swearingen had been trying for a long time to question the evidence used to convict him, in particular the prosecution experts' statements that Trotter's body had been in the woods for 25 days. His long-time lawyer, James Rytting, said that at least five defense experts had concluded that his body had only been there for 14 days, and that Swearingen had been arrested for code violations. the exceptional road he could not have left his body here.
Swearingen, which was also represented by the Innocence project, had already benefited from five stays of execution. He was put to death after the US Supreme Court dismissed his latest appeal, which concerned allegations that prosecutors had used "false and misleading testimony" related to blood and a piece of evidence. sticky used to strangle Trotter.
Kelly Blackburn, head of the Montgomery County Attorney's Office, who sued Swearingen, said the murderer's attempts to discredit the evidence were unsuccessful because the opinions of his experts were "not for water" .
"I have no doubt that anyone, except Larry Swearingen, killed … Melissa Trotter," he said.
Blackburn said that Swearingen had killed Trotter because he was angry that she had held an appointment. At the time of Trotter's assassination, Swearingen was on indictment for kidnapping a former fiancee.
Larry Swearingen, 48, received a lethal injection at Huntsville State Penitentiary for the murder of 19-year-old Melissa Trotter in December 1998. (Texas Department of Criminal Justice via AP)
"Lord, forgive them," said Swearingen after the guard asked him if he had a final statement. "They do not know what they are doing."
Then, as the lethal dose of pentobarbital began, he said that he could "hear" him enter a vein from his arm, then that he could taste it.
"In fact, it burns in my right arm. I do not feel anything in my left arm, "he said.
Almost immediately, he took a short breath, then began to snore softly. He stopped moving.
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He never opened his eyes and never looked at the witnesses who represented the victim, including his parents, who were watching him through a window a few feet away.
At 18:47 CT – 12 minutes after the start of the lethal dose – Death of Swearingen.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
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