Larry Swearingen is sitting on Death Row for a 1998 murder that pathologists say he couldn't possibly have committed. The victim, a 19-year old college student, went missing on December 8. Her body was found three weeks later on January 2. She had been strangled.
Police fingered Swearingen for the crime shortly after the girl disappeared. That translated into charges of kidnapping, rape and murder after the body was found.
The problem with Swearingen's conviction is that several Texas pathologists, including the one who did the autopsy, contend the victim hadn't been dead very long by the time her body was discovered. She had to have been murdered while Swearingen was already in police custody.
But Swearingen is in Texas and the governor is Rick Perry who now holds the record for signing death warrants and seems to have never found a warrant he didn't like.
The
central question— low long Trotter had been dead—hinges on histology
samples collected during her autopsy and saved in a paraffin block.
Veteran pathologists who have reviewed the evidence agree that the
samples of Trotter’s lung, heart and vascular tissues reveal intact
structures that would have broken down had her body really been left in
the forest for nearly a month. - See more at:
http://www.thenation.com/article/173014/death-row-prisoner-larry-swearingen-may-be-innocent-do-texas-courts-care#sthash.OIwyc1bL.dpuf
The
central question— low long Trotter had been dead—hinges on histology
samples collected during her autopsy and saved in a paraffin block.
Veteran pathologists who have reviewed the evidence agree that the
samples of Trotter’s lung, heart and vascular tissues reveal intact
structures that would have broken down had her body really been left in
the forest for nearly a month.
Even the Houston medical examiner who conducted the autopsy, Dr. Joye Carter, has recanted her trial testimony, admitting in 2007 that the ease with which she was able to weigh and dissect Trotter’s organs made the state’s timeline impossible.
Swearingen has faced the death chamber four times. In 2011, the CCA stayed his third execution date, sending the case back to Montgomery County for a hearing on the science determining when Trotter had died. The hearing lasted nine days, ending in March 2012, and featured experts who testified about the methods of determining a person’s time of death, and explained why well-preserved forensic samples taken from Trotter’s autopsy could only mean she was killed not long before January 2. The final transcripts had not yet been filed—nor had a mandatory hearing been held to determine the admissibility of such expert testimony—when Judge Fred Edwards, who had presided over the original trial, declared the science presented by the defense “junk.” Edwards sent the case back to the CCA, denying Swearingen relief. Last December 12, the CCA allowed Edwards to set another execution date, which he did the following day.
- See more at: http://www.thenation.com/article/173014/death-row-prisoner-larry-swearingen-may-be-innocent-do-texas-courts-care#sthash.OIwyc1bL.dpuf
Even the Houston medical examiner who conducted the autopsy, Dr. Joye Carter, has recanted her trial testimony, admitting in 2007 that the ease with which she was able to weigh and dissect Trotter’s organs made the state’s timeline impossible.
Swearingen has faced the death chamber four times. In 2011, the CCA stayed his third execution date, sending the case back to Montgomery County for a hearing on the science determining when Trotter had died. The hearing lasted nine days, ending in March 2012, and featured experts who testified about the methods of determining a person’s time of death, and explained why well-preserved forensic samples taken from Trotter’s autopsy could only mean she was killed not long before January 2. The final transcripts had not yet been filed—nor had a mandatory hearing been held to determine the admissibility of such expert testimony—when Judge Fred Edwards, who had presided over the original trial, declared the science presented by the defense “junk.” Edwards sent the case back to the CCA, denying Swearingen relief. Last December 12, the CCA allowed Edwards to set another execution date, which he did the following day.
- See more at: http://www.thenation.com/article/173014/death-row-prisoner-larry-swearingen-may-be-innocent-do-texas-courts-care#sthash.OIwyc1bL.dpuf
The
central question— low long Trotter had been dead—hinges on histology
samples collected during her autopsy and saved in a paraffin block.
Veteran pathologists who have reviewed the evidence agree that the
samples of Trotter’s lung, heart and vascular tissues reveal intact
structures that would have broken down had her body really been left in
the forest for nearly a month.
Even the Houston medical examiner who conducted the autopsy, Dr. Joye Carter, has recanted her trial testimony, admitting in 2007 that the ease with which she was able to weigh and dissect Trotter’s organs made the state’s timeline impossible.
Swearingen has faced the death chamber four times. In 2011, the CCA stayed his third execution date, sending the case back to Montgomery County for a hearing on the science determining when Trotter had died. The hearing lasted nine days, ending in March 2012, and featured experts who testified about the methods of determining a person’s time of death, and explained why well-preserved forensic samples taken from Trotter’s autopsy could only mean she was killed not long before January 2. The final transcripts had not yet been filed—nor had a mandatory hearing been held to determine the admissibility of such expert testimony—when Judge Fred Edwards, who had presided over the original trial, declared the science presented by the defense “junk.” Edwards sent the case back to the CCA, denying Swearingen relief. Last December 12, the CCA allowed Edwards to set another execution date, which he did the following day.
- See more at: http://www.thenation.com/article/173014/death-row-prisoner-larry-swearingen-may-be-innocent-do-texas-courts-care#sthash.OIwyc1bL.dpuf
Even the Houston medical examiner who conducted the autopsy, Dr. Joye Carter, has recanted her trial testimony, admitting in 2007 that the ease with which she was able to weigh and dissect Trotter’s organs made the state’s timeline impossible.
Swearingen has faced the death chamber four times. In 2011, the CCA stayed his third execution date, sending the case back to Montgomery County for a hearing on the science determining when Trotter had died. The hearing lasted nine days, ending in March 2012, and featured experts who testified about the methods of determining a person’s time of death, and explained why well-preserved forensic samples taken from Trotter’s autopsy could only mean she was killed not long before January 2. The final transcripts had not yet been filed—nor had a mandatory hearing been held to determine the admissibility of such expert testimony—when Judge Fred Edwards, who had presided over the original trial, declared the science presented by the defense “junk.” Edwards sent the case back to the CCA, denying Swearingen relief. Last December 12, the CCA allowed Edwards to set another execution date, which he did the following day.
- See more at: http://www.thenation.com/article/173014/death-row-prisoner-larry-swearingen-may-be-innocent-do-texas-courts-care#sthash.OIwyc1bL.dpuf
The
central question— low long Trotter had been dead—hinges on histology
samples collected during her autopsy and saved in a paraffin block.
Veteran pathologists who have reviewed the evidence agree that the
samples of Trotter’s lung, heart and vascular tissues reveal intact
structures that would have broken down had her body really been left in
the forest for nearly a month.
Even the Houston medical examiner who conducted the autopsy, Dr. Joye Carter, has recanted her trial testimony, admitting in 2007 that the ease with which she was able to weigh and dissect Trotter’s organs made the state’s timeline impossible.
Swearingen has faced the death chamber four times. In 2011, the CCA stayed his third execution date, sending the case back to Montgomery County for a hearing on the science determining when Trotter had died. The hearing lasted nine days, ending in March 2012, and featured experts who testified about the methods of determining a person’s time of death, and explained why well-preserved forensic samples taken from Trotter’s autopsy could only mean she was killed not long before January 2. The final transcripts had not yet been filed—nor had a mandatory hearing been held to determine the admissibility of such expert testimony—when Judge Fred Edwards, who had presided over the original trial, declared the science presented by the defense “junk.” Edwards sent the case back to the CCA, denying Swearingen relief. Last December 12, the CCA allowed Edwards to set another execution date, which he did the following day.
- See more at: http://www.thenation.com/article/173014/death-row-prisoner-larry-swearingen-may-be-innocent-do-texas-courts-care#sthash.OIwyc1bL.dpuf
Even the Houston medical examiner who conducted the autopsy, Dr. Joye Carter, has recanted her trial testimony, admitting in 2007 that the ease with which she was able to weigh and dissect Trotter’s organs made the state’s timeline impossible.
Swearingen has faced the death chamber four times. In 2011, the CCA stayed his third execution date, sending the case back to Montgomery County for a hearing on the science determining when Trotter had died. The hearing lasted nine days, ending in March 2012, and featured experts who testified about the methods of determining a person’s time of death, and explained why well-preserved forensic samples taken from Trotter’s autopsy could only mean she was killed not long before January 2. The final transcripts had not yet been filed—nor had a mandatory hearing been held to determine the admissibility of such expert testimony—when Judge Fred Edwards, who had presided over the original trial, declared the science presented by the defense “junk.” Edwards sent the case back to the CCA, denying Swearingen relief. Last December 12, the CCA allowed Edwards to set another execution date, which he did the following day.
- See more at: http://www.thenation.com/article/173014/death-row-prisoner-larry-swearingen-may-be-innocent-do-texas-courts-care#sthash.OIwyc1bL.dpuf
4 comments:
is the accused a person of colour? Most likely. These executions are simply a case of murder by the state. I find it interesting it is very difficult to have an abortion in Texas but getting executed is no problem at all. You'd think all these good christians might get a tad upset about all the killing going on in the prison system with the approval of the governor. Doesn't make sense to me, but I don't think Texas makes much sense to a lot of people. Never let it be said facts got in the way of Rick Perry's decision making. Thank god he didn't make it to the finals for president.
With the Supreme Court of the U.S.A. already having ruled, just because you are innocent, you don't get out of jail, this man is in trouble. Given the state of the justice system in the U.S.A., it is looking a lot like the justice systems in china, russia, syria, etc. The American/Texas taliban is alive and well.
Texas's christians must have forgotten the commandement wich states, "thou shalt not kill". It is pretty straight forward. There are no exceptions.
I can only hope that some how this man gains his freedom. In Canada we abolished the death penalty back in the 1960s and guess what, the murder rate has been going down ever since.
Perry most likely has some psychological defect which keeps him signing these death warrants. I would liken him to a serial killer.
Facts and truth mean nothing in a state that routinely revises grade school text books to conform to ideological concerns, and to confirm their adherence to belief in fables such as the creation myth and the age of the universe. Religion and superstition rule in Texas.
It is a failed state within a larger failing state. They believe quite openly that murdering a few innocent people is a small price to pay to be able to murder the guilty with impunity.
It is a very very dangerous and demented place that I would not visit for a million dollars.
No, he's a white fellow. He just happened to be the last person known to have spoken to her prior to her disappearance. That, apparently was enough for the cops to take him into custody.
Signing death warrants seems to be as much a part of governing Texas as wearing stetsons and cowboy boots.
"a failed state within a larger failing state" - well put, Elliott.
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