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Thread: Larry Ray Swearingen - Texas Execution - August 21, 2019

  1. #81
    Senior Member CnCP Addict one_two_bomb's Avatar
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    You've gotta be kidding me. This means shore will probably get delayed too.

  2. #82
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    And once again Texas drops the ball. Since April 2016, 24 executions have been stayed in the state with 7 being carried out, and this is the second time a warrant wasn't served properly. I'm going call it here and say they won't ever go above 8 executions in a year again.

  3. #83
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Lawyers agree to DNA testing in Swearingen's death row case

    After years of courtroom wrangling, lawyers from both sides are finally agreeing to move forward with DNA testing in the 1998 rape and murder of Montgomery College student Melissa Trotter.

    The agreement, expected to be finalized in court papers in the coming weeks, comes just days after a judge called off the pending execution of death row inmate Larry Swearingen, who was convicted in the slaying nearly two decades ago and has since repeatedly professed his innocence.

    "They're doing the right thing," defense attorney James Rytting said Sunday, pointing to another death row's alleged plan to confess to the crime as evidence of the need for testing.

    A lab would likely evaluate the rape kit, the ligature used to strangle Trotter, finger nail scrapings and hair.

    "We're still working out the details, but I'm excited that Mr. Rytting has finally agreed to allow us to test this DNA," Montgomery County District Attorney Brett Ligon said Sunday. "I'm glad to be moving forward on this matter."

    Years-long legal battles over DNA testing have become a hallmark of Swearingen's case, which even sparked changes to state laws regarding post-conviction DNA testing in 2015. Both sides have pushed for DNA testing at times, but always using different legal mechanisms and never in agreement.

    At least twice, a trial court judge sided with Swearingen's testing requests - but each time the state slapped down the lower court's move, ruling that new DNA wouldn't be enough to counter the "mountain of evidence" pointing to Swearingen's guilt.

    In 2013, prosecutors filed a failed bid for DNA testing, but the defense opposed.

    Now, though, an alleged death row confession plot that could have seen another convicted killer confess to Trotter's death has sparked new interest in testing.

    "Both sides now recognize that there's a need to test the evidence," Rytting said.
    Swearingen and Trotter were seen in the college's library together on Dec. 8, 1998 - the day of the teen's disappearance. Afterward, a biology teacher spotted Trotter leaving the school with a man.

    Hair and fiber evidence later showed that she'd been in Swearingen's car and home the day she vanished.

    The killer's wife testified that she came home that evening to find the place in disarray - and in the middle of it all were Trotter's lighter and cigarettes. Swearingen later filed a false burglary report, claiming his home had been broken into while he was out of town.

    That afternoon, Swearingen placed a call routed through a cell tower near FM 1097 in Willis - a spot he would have passed while heading from his house to the Sam Houston National Forest where Trotter's decomposing body was found 25 days later.

    Swearingen was convicted and sentenced to death in 2000, but on Friday a judge approved calling off his Nov. 16 death date - the fifth one scheduled in the case - as a result of a filing snafu.

    Back in August,, the Montgomery County District Clerk sent notice of the November execution scheduling to the Office of the Attorney General's writ office instead of to the Office of Capital and Forensic Writs. Because the law requires notice to the OCFW - which defends death row convicts - to be mailed within two days of the setting of an execution, the date had to be called off. It has not been rescheduled.

    Swearingen's attorneys first pointed out the problem in court papers on Wednesday, filing a motion to withdraw the execution in light of the mistake.

    But aside from the clerical issues, Rytting also requested calling off the execution in order "to investigate newly discovered information suggesting that Anthony Shore - a convicted serial killer - has confessed to the murder of Melissa Trotter," according to court papers.

    "Mr. Swearingen will seek to depose Mr. Shore in order to preserve his testimony regarding the nature of any confessions he made, to obtain a DNA sample, and to obtain all other relevant information including documents, recordings and any other evidence concerning Mr. Shore's connection to Ms. Trotter's murder."

    Word of the alleged confession scheme emerged on the eve of Shore's scheduled execution on Oct. 18.

    Hours before he was scheduled to die, Shore won a 90-day stay after prosecutors said the four-time killer admitted to an abandoned plan to admit to Swearingen's crime.

    Officials first found out about the possibility of a last-minute confession attempt back in July, when a death row cell search uncovered materials relating to Trotter's killing - including a hand-drawn map marking the supposed location of more evidence - stashed in Shore's cell.

    The day before his scheduled execution, Shore told investigators he'd only considered confessing to get his friend off, and not because he'd actually committed the additional crime. The multiple murderer also agreed to answer questions about other cases, and a judge greenlit pushing back his first scheduled execution date. He is now slated to die by lethal injection on Jan. 18.

    http://m.chron.com/neighborhood/conr...photo-14373952
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  4. #84
    Senior Member CnCP Addict one_two_bomb's Avatar
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    So hell probably live at least another year or more

  5. #85
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Investigators comb lake for new evidence in Swearingen death row case

    By Keri Blakinger
    The Houston Chronicle

    Nearly 20 years after the murder of college student Melissa Trotter rocked Montgomery County, dive teams are out searching for more evidence in the county's only death row case.

    The renewed search efforts come weeks after word of an abandoned confession plot between Larry Swearingen - who was convicted in Trotter's slaying - and Houston serial killer Anthony Shore threatened to cloud the case and pointed to the possibility of more evidence.

    "We're trying to be thorough and check off all the boxes," said Montgomery County District Attorney Brett Ligon. "We don't anticipate finding anything 20 years later."

    Search efforts led by Montgomery County Precinct 1 Constable Philip Cash, at Ligon's request, kicked off on Monday at an undisclosed location. So far, investigators did not indicate finding any new evidence but the hunt was still ongoing Thursday morning.

    "We were hopeful something could be found but we weren't really expecting anything," Ligon said.

    After years of slow-burning appeals and quiet courtroom wrangling, Swearingen's case rocketed back into the limelight last month after a flurry of unexpected developments. First, the confession plot with Shore. Then, a filing snafu and a cancelled execution. Next, a DNA testing agreement and a lake-bottom search.

    Through it all, Trotter's family has yearned for justice.

    "I'm frustrated," said Sandy Trotter, the slain teen's mother. "But I am convinced this is all in God's timing."

    On the day of Melissa Trotter's appearance in December 1998, she and Swearingen were spotted together in Montgomery College library. Afterward, a biology teacher saw the 19-year-old leaving the school with a man.

    Hair and fiber evidence later showed that she'd been in Swearingen's car and home the day she vanished.

    The killer's wife testified that she came home that evening to find the place in disarray - and in the middle of it all were Trotter's lighter and cigarettes. That afternoon, Swearingen placed a call routed through a cell tower near FM 1097 in Willis - a spot he would have passed while heading from his house to the Sam Houston National Forest where Trotter's decomposing body was found 25 days later.

    Swearingen was convicted and sentenced to death in 2000, but since then has repeatedly evaded the state's harshest punishment through a series of dogged appeals, many focusing on efforts to insure DNA testing.

    Both he and Shore had execution dates set for this fall, but judges called them off not long after news emerged of the pair's alleged confession scheme.

    Hours before he was scheduled to die on Oct. 18, Shore won a 90-day stay after prosecutors said the four-time killer admitted to an abandoned plan to confess to Swearingen's crime.

    Over the years, Swearingen has consistently professed his innocence. Shore, on the other hand, has consistently admitted to the 1992 killing of Maria del Carmen Estrada - for which he was convicted - as well as the gruesome strangulations of 14-year-old Laurie Tremblay, 9-year-old Diana Rebollar and 16-year-old Dana Sanchez.

    Officials first found out about the possibility of a last-minute confession attempt back in July, when a death row cell search uncovered materials relating to Trotter's killing - including a hand-drawn map marking the supposed location of more evidence - stashed in Shore's cell.

    The day before his scheduled execution, Shore told investigators he'd only considered confessing to get his friend off, and not because he'd actually committed the additional crime. The multiple murderer also agreed to answer questions about other cases, and a judge greenlit pushing back his first scheduled execution date.

    At the time, Swearingen also had a death date on the calendar - for Nov. 16 - but that has since been called off as the result of a filing error after the Montgomery County District Clerk sent notice of the execution to the wrong office.

    And while prosecutors in Harris County reset an execution date for Shore, Montgomery County prosecutors have not filed for a new date in the Swearingen case. Instead, they've agreed to more DNA testing in a final effort to clear the water in the two-decade-old case.

    http://www.chron.com/neighborhood/co...n-12326492.php

  6. #86
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Divers come back empty-handed in search in murder case

    By Keri Blakinger
    Houston Chronicle

    They found beer cans, Christmas trees and dumbbells. They found coffee containers and yards upon yards of fishing line. Somewhere around day three of the search, they pulled up a seat cushion.

    But they never found what they were looking for.

    After six days of searching, dive teams in Montgomery County came back empty-handed after combing through part of Lake Conroe for 19-year-old evidence in the murder of Melissa Trotter.

    A hand-drawn map recovered from a death row cell back in July pointed investigators to the new search spot, a short stretch of relatively shallow lake water under what locals know as the FM 1097 short bridge in Willis.

    That map - along with other materials relating to the slaying recovered in Houston serial killer Anthony Shore's cell - threatened to muddy the case against Larry Swearingen, who has been on death row for the killing for nearly two decades.

    "We're trying to be thorough and check off all the boxes," Montgomery County District Attorney Brett Ligon said after the search got underway Monday.

    Led by Montgomery County Precinct 1 Constable Philip Cash's office at Ligon's request, the search focused on finding specific evidence belonging to the slain teen that allegedly was tossed off the bridge just after the killing.

    Ligon declined to specify what the evidence might be, citing a fear of copycats.

    A combination of volunteer divers and constable deputies picked through the muck at the bottom of the sandy lake bed, poking along the bottom in nearly black water. The search area extended a little over 1,000 feet along the bridge and 70 feet out in either direction - the farthest investigators estimated a killer could have tossed the evidence in question.

    In some spots, divers went as deep as 15 feet, but in other areas they walked through knee-deep water to hunt.

    But to no one's surprise, they failed to recover anything related to the case.

    "We're getting pretty close to how long evidence could last underwater," Precinct 1 Lt. Timmy Cade said during day five of the search. Two decades of currents and storms could eat away at the materials, he said. But the evidence also could have been submerged beneath the sand and silt - if it was ever actually there to begin with.

    "My belief in the guilt of Larry Swearingen has never wavered," Ligon said. "Those who question the delay, the additional search and the agreement to test the few remaining inconsequential items for DNA simply don't understand death penalty litigation."

    After years of courtroom battles, Swearingen's case moved back into the spotlight earlier this year, not long after a judge approved a November execution.

    The Willis man already had dodged four dates with death, but as a fifth drew near, investigators uncovered a supposed plot with Shore. The two men had allegedly schemed to have Shore confess to Trotter's murder and plant evidence from that crime in his own cell, a move that would have clouded matters in a case in which the condemned killer has long professed his innocence.

    The plot pushed a judge to move back Shore's October execution for the decades-old slayings of Maria del Carmen Estrada, Laurie Tremblay, Diana Rebollar and Dana Sanchez.

    Days later, a court called off Swearingen's execution in light of a paperwork snafu.

    But instead of resetting the date, lawyers on both sides agreed to further DNA testing and dive teams took to the waters of Lake Conroe in a failed hunt for more evidence.

    http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news...r-12333926.php
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  7. #87
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Questions Linger for Anthony Shore, Larry Swearingen

    Houston serial killer Anthony Shore faces another death date, this one Jan. 18. Shore was originally set for execution in October, but that got halted by the Harris County District Attorney's Office amid rumors he was planning to confess to another murder: the 1998 killing of Melissa Trotter. Except Larry Swearingen had been convicted of kidnapping, raping, and strangling Trotter in 2000, and by then was preparing for his own execution in November.

    Assistant District Attorney Tom Berg said his office revoked Shore's execution warrant at the request of Montgomery County D.A. Brett Ligon, who believed Shore was colluding with Swearingen. (He says a folder was found in Shore's cell with information relating to Trotter's death.) Berg said the Texas Rangers have since interviewed Shore, who admitted he had "nothing to do" with Trotter's murder. Shore alleged he and Swearingen once contemplated conspiring, but had since "parted ways." Berg, who says his office and Ligon's have reviewed the interview, said Shore decided not to "take the fall" for his fellow inmate. Shore has exhausted his appeals; Berg said he's unaware of any new attempts to stay Shore's execution, and concluded that his case will see its "inevitable end" next Thursday.

    Swearingen, however, had his November execution stayed due to a filing error, and has since been granted additional DNA testing. Unlike Shore, who confessed to killing four girls between 1986 and 1995, Swearingen has maintained his innocence. His supporters, including his lawyer James Rytting, say he was in a county jail for outstanding traffic warrants at the time of Trotter's murder. The 19-year-old was last seen on Dec. 8, 1998, with Swearingen (who wasn't arrested until three days later), but her body wasn't discovered until Jan. 2. Rytting said forensic evidence suggests her body could not have been dumped in the woods until "a week or 10 days" after Swearingen was arrested.

    Included in the evidence sent out for testing is Trotter's rape kit, which was never tested and could exonerate Swearingen should analysts uncover another DNA profile. Samples of hair particles found on Trot*ter's undergarments and the alleged murder weapon (a torn pair of pantyhose) will also be tested. The evidence was shipped out in December and testing will likely take four weeks.

    Rytting was alarmed that the state had reissued an execution date for Shore. "They shouldn't be putting the guy into the ground with these questions still around," he said. He says two witnesses, with no connection to Swearingen, told the D.A.'s Office that Shore suggested to them that he was connected to Trotter's murder. The information, Rytting said, would "sure as hell" make Shore a suspect had it been provided prior to Swearingen's conviction. "It's a type of incriminating statement the prosecution seizes on all the time," he said. "You don't get to wiggle out of it with an 'Aw shucks, I was kidding.'"

    Shore will likely mark the first state-sanctioned killing of 2018, and his is just the beginning. William Rayford is scheduled for Jan. 30, and John Battaglia for Feb. 1.

    https://www.austinchronicle.com/news...ry-swearingen/
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  8. #88
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    DNA testing results released on death row case of Larry Swearingen

    More than a year after prosecutors agreed to DNA testing on decades-old evidence in a Montgomery County death row case, the results are in - and they didn't reveal anything new.

    Most of the aging evidence sent to the lab didn't show any male DNA at all, prosecutors said, while the genetic material pulled from cigarette butts found near Melissa Trotter's body only traced back to the hunters who found her.

    "Everything (the defense) requested to be tested has been tested at this point," said Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Kelly Blackburn.

    Now, with no pending appeals and no new DNA to help validate his claims of innocence, convicted killer Larry Swearingen could be one step closer to yet another execution date.

    "Unfortunately, the testing we did really didn't move the ball," said Bryce Benjet, a defense attorney with the Innocence Project. "At the end of the day, it was useful to the extent that it can show that we tested every item and none of that testing has pointed to Larry Swearingen."

    The 47-year-old was sentenced to die two decades ago for the murder of a Montgomery College student. In the years since, the Willis man has fended off the state's repeated attempts to execute him, lobbing a slew of appeals, including multiple pleas for testing on pantyhose and cigarettes found in the woods near the slain woman's body.

    Prosecutors and defense lawyers finally came to a testing agreement in late 2017, after years of back-and-forth over various proposals.

    In addition to the cigarette butts and some of the slain teen's clothes, the lab analyzed hair stuck in a knot tied in the torn pair of pantyhose used in the murder. Though the strands looked like they may have belonged to someone other than Trotter, the two-decade-old sample didn't net any DNA for testing, Benjet said.

    Attorneys also asked for testing on a different piece of pantyhose found near Swearingen's trailer after the crime. Whether that's the other half of the pair used in the killing has been a point of dispute, but testing on it showed some DNA pointing to Swearingen – and nothing pointing to Trotter.

    The last time anyone saw Trotter alive was on Dec. 8, 1998, when she and Swearingen were spotted together in the community college library. Afterward, a biology teacher caught sight of Trotter leaving the school with a man.

    Hair and fiber evidence later showed that she'd been in Swearingen's car at some point before she vanished.

    Swearingen's wife testified that she came home that evening to find the place in disarray - and in the middle of it all were a lighter and cigarettes believed to belong to Trotter. Swearingen later filed a burglary report, saying his home had been broken into while he was out of town.

    That afternoon, he placed a call routed through a cell tower near FM 1097 in Willis - a spot prosecutors say he would have passed while heading from his house to the Sam Houston National Forest where Trotter's decomposing body was found 25 days later.

    Crime scene investigators recovered biological material from the scene - but there was never any conclusive link to Swearingen. Instead, he was convicted and sentenced to death based on what prosecutors have since described as a "mountain" of circumstantial evidence.

    Since he was sent to death row in 2000, he's had at least five execution dates set and canceled.

    In 2017, he made national headlines as the result of a plot with another condemned prisoner, serial killer Anthony Shore. Shore, who has since been executed, was allegedly planning to wrongly confess to Trotter's slaying in the final minutes before his death.

    But authorities got wind of the supposed scheme, and called off Shore's execution date to investigate further. Then, the courts called off Swearingen's death date a month later - not because of the plot or any concerns about his possible innocence, but because of a clerical error.

    Afterward, lawyers on both sides of the case agreed to testing, a process that's dragged out for more than a year.

    Currently, Swearingen doesn't have any appeals pending, but Benjet – who is handling the case along with Houston-based attorney James Rytting – hinted at the possibility of more court filings ahead, including claims questioning the cell phone forensics used to pinpoint Swearingen's location.

    https://m.chron.com/news/houston-tex...y-13590864.php
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  9. #89
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Is it true he just got a new execution date?

  10. #90
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Sixth execution date set for convicted Montgomery County killer Larry Swearingen

    By Keri Blakinger
    The Houston Chronicle

    For the sixth time, the state of Texas is set to execute convicted killer Larry Ray Swearingen, a Willis man convicted of slaughtering Montgomery County college student Sandy Trotter before dumping her body in the Sam Houston National Forest.

    In the two decades he's been on death row, the 47-year-old former mechanic has repeatedly professed his innocence while narrowly avoiding the gurney again and again. Once, he won a stay over a clerical error. Other times, it was questions about everything from autopsy evidence to entomology that helped him avoid the Huntsville death chamber.

    But in February - weeks after getting back results from a monthslong DNA-testing process that failed to turn up new information in the case - prosecutors filed a motion asking for an Aug. 21 execution date.

    Judge J.D. Langley greenlit the request - the state's ninth in the case - on Tuesday, a move likely to set off a flurry of last-minute appeals.

    "We've already proved that Larry Swearingen didn't commit this crime and the forensics have just been ignored," said defense attorney James Rytting. "We continue to find serious problems with the technical and scientific evidence used to convict him."

    Specifically, he said, the cell phone evidence "was complete junk - and we're going to demonstrate it." He also called into question other forensics, including fiber analysis and the use of torn pantyhose from near Swearingen's home that the state said matched material from the crime scene.

    "The doubts will be there forever, like another Cameron Todd Willingham," Rytting said, referencing a controversial 2004 execution.

    But Montgomery County District Attorney Brett Ligon does not share that uncertainty.

    "We're cautiously optimistic that this execution date will go through," he said Wednesday. "However, given the nature of death penalty litigation and appeals it would not be unusual for last minute writs to be filed."

    Now Montgomery County's only death row prisoner, Swearingen was sentenced to die in 2000, two years after the slaying that landed him behind bars. Weeks before Christmas 1998, Trotter and Swearingen were spotted in the library at Montgomery Community College. They left together, and it was the last time anyone saw the 19-year-old alive.

    Hair and fiber evidence later showed the teen had been in Swearingen's car at some point before she vanished.

    During trial, Swearingen's wife testified that she came home that evening to find the place in disarray - and in the middle of it all were a lighter and cigarettes believed to belong to Trotter. It could have been the sign of a struggle, but Swearingen later filed a burglary report, saying his home had been broken into while he was out of town.

    That afternoon, he placed a call routed through a cell tower near FM 1097 in Willis - a spot prosecutors say he would have passed while heading from his house to the woods where Trotter's decomposing body was found 25 days later.

    Crime scene investigators recovered biological material from the scene - but there was never any conclusive link to Swearingen. Instead, he was convicted and sentenced to death based on what courts later described as a "mountain" of circumstantial evidence.

    For years, defense lawyers fought for DNA testing in the case. Finally, both sides came to an agreement in 2017.

    In the months that followed, experts analyzed cigarette butts from the crime scene, hair and some of the slain teen's clothing. But most of the aging evidence didn't turn up any male DNA at all, and the cigarettes only returned DNA from the hunters who discovered the girl's body.

    Though the testing agreement came weeks after a last-minute stay of execution, it wasn't the long-standing questions over DNA that in 2017 saved him from the death chamber. Instead, it was a clerical error - and an alleged death row confession plot.

    That fall, Swearingen made national headlines as the result of a scheme hatched with serial killer Anthony Shore. Shore, who has since been executed, was allegedly planning to wrongly confess to Trotter's slaying in the final minutes before his death.

    But authorities got wind of the supposed plan, and called off Shore's execution date to investigate further. The former tow truck driver was executed in early 2018.

    The Lone Star State has executed two men so far in 2019, and another five death dates are on the calendar.

    https://www.chron.com/news/houston-t...y-13686787.php

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