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Texas Department of Criminal Justice
A Texan death-row convict who argued that his conviction was based on a computer science was executed Wednesday for the kidnapping, rape and murder of a student from a Houston community college in the suburbs , more than 20 years ago. Larry Swearingen, 48, received 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 home. Community College in Conroe, and his body was found near a month later in a forest near Huntsville, about 70 miles north of Houston.
Swearingen, who had always maintained his innocence in the death of Trotter, was the 12th sentenced to death this year in the United States and the fourth in Texas, the busiest capital punishment in the country. Eleven more executions are planned in Texas this year.
"Lord, forgive them," said Swearingen after the guard asked him if he had a final statement. "They do not know what they do."
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.
He never opened his eyes and never looked at the witnesses who represented the victim, including his parents, who were looking through a window a few feet away from him.
At 18:47 TDC – 12 minutes after the start of the administration of the lethal dose – Death of Swearingen.
"Today, justice has been rendered to Melissa," said her family in a statement sent to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. "This process has been overwhelming, we want to praise God for allowing us to go through this horrible ordeal, and we believe we can now move forward and begin the healing process.
"We want Melissa to be recognized as a happy, loving and kind spirit with a beautiful smile, we always knew that justice would prevail for Melissa."
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 long been trying to cast doubt on the evidence to convict him, in particular the claims of prosecution experts 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 focused on allegations that prosecutors were using "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 Swearingen's efforts to discredit the evidence had been unsuccessful, as its experts' opinions were not "immutable".
"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 murder, Swearingen was under indictment for the abduction of a former fiancée.
During an interview in 2011, Swearingen told the Associated Press that he was tired of being "demonized" for a crime that he had not not committed.
"We would all like to know who did it," he said.
In addition to questioning the date of Trotter's death, Rytting maintained that a piece of pantyhose used to strangle Trotter did not match a piece found in Swearingen's caravan. He also challenged the claims of prosecution experts rejecting the blood found in Trotter's nail chips, which he determined was not Swearingen's. He said that the evidence supported the theory of defense that someone else killed him.
In letters to Swearingen's lawyers in July and August, the Texas Department of Public Safety said its technicians should not have been so eloquent in their testimony about the blood found in nails and pantyhose .
The US 5th Federal Court of Appeal dismissed Swearingen's challenge over evidence of blood and pantyhose correspondence, citing the "mountain of evidence" that "seals Swearingen's guilt for the murder of Trotter" . The Court of Appeal dismissed the defense's allegations that the evidence on the blood and panty tape evidence was false and misleading.
Blackburn said Swearingen had tried to lie to people to give themselves an alibi. After his arrest, Swearingen asked another inmate to write a letter written in Spanish by Swearingen who claimed to be the real killer and sent it to his lawyer. In 2017, Swearingen and another detainee, Anthony Shore, came up with a plan to have Shore take responsibility for Trotter's murder. Shore, sentenced to death for another crime, was executed last year.
Rytting said that Swearingen was guilty of committing "very stupid things", but prosecutors had no evidence that he had killed Trotter.
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