Arrested, Railroaded and Executed

Nineteen years after the murder he was accused of committing, apparently falsely, Larry Swearingen was executed on August 22nd. The victim was Melissa Trotter, a 19-year-old Houston college student, who disappeared from campus and was found dead three weeks later. Police arrested Swearingen a few days after Trotter went missing, based on a witness’s recollection that he’d been talking to her in the college library. Forensic experts testified that the condition of Trotter’s body indicated that her murder took place not long before she was discovered, while Swearingen was behind bars. Nevertheless, the State of Texas pursued a capital murder charge against him, and additionally accused him of raping Trotter before she died, despite the absence of semen or any indication that she was involved in a physical struggle. Before trial, the defendant’s landlord “discovered” the alleged murder weapon in Swearingen’s living quarters, which had been searched twice previously by law enforcement officers who found nothing. Just before Swearingen got the fatal dose of pentobarbital, Kristin Houle, executive director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, told Reason, “It is a sad day for justice in Texas. If his execution proceeds, Larry Swearingen will join several other individuals who were put to death by the state despite credible evidence of innocence.”