[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, USA
August 21 TEXASexecution Texas executed Larry Swearingen for a 1998 Texas slaying. His lawyer says bad science got him on death row. Swearingen consistently maintained his innocence in the strangling death of 19-year-old Melissa Trotter. Texas prosecutors, however, had no doubt he was her killer. For decades, a staunch claim of innocence and doubts over forensic science engulfed the death penalty case of Larry Swearingen. On Wednesday, he was executed in Texas' death chamber. The 48-year-old man lived on death row for nearly 2 decades, consistently expressing his innocence in the 1998 strangling death of Melissa Trotter, a 19-year-old community college student in Montgomery County he has said was his friend. Multiple state courts had previously taken five execution dates off the calendar over the years to look into different issues surrounding Swearingen’s conviction, but prosecutors and Trotter’s family remain firmly convinced he was her killer. After a late appeal was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court minutes before his scheduled execution time of 6 p.m., Swearingen was taken into the execution chamber in Huntsville and connected to an IV. “Lord forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing,” Swearingen said into a microphone hanging above his head. He was then injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital and pronounced dead at 6:47 p.m., according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Swearingen only had a spiritual adviser present at his execution, watching through a glass pane in a small viewing room, according to a TDCJ witness list. Trotter's parents, brother, grandfather and uncle stood in an adjacent room. Trotter had been missing for weeks before her body was found by hunters in the Sam Houston National Forest on Jan. 2, 1999, with a leg from a pair of pantyhose tied around her throat. Law enforcement had already pegged Swearingen as the main suspect in her disappearance, arresting him on unrelated traffic warrants 3 days after Trotter had last been seen with him on Dec. 8, 1998. Based on what judges have since called a mountain of circumstantial evidence, he was convicted and sentenced to death in 2000. Swearingen and his legal team relentlessly fought his conviction and death sentence, gathering numerous scientists who concluded that, based on the condition her body was in when it was found, Trotter was killed within two weeks of being found — more than a week after Swearingen was already behind bars. They also argued against the science used by state experts who matched a leg of pantyhose in his home to the piece used to strangle Trotter. And they balked at the courts’ dismissal of blood flecks found under Trotter’s fingernails that did not match Trotter nor Swearingen. “They are going to execute someone that the legitimate forensic science has proven innocent,” said James Rytting, Swearingen’s attorney, Tuesday. “And the execution is going through on the basis of other forensic science that is borderline quackery — in fact it is quackery.” The Montgomery County district attorney’s office, however, has zero doubt that Swearingen was Trotter’s killer. Kelly Blackburn, the office’s trial bureau chief, recited a laundry list of circumstantial evidence prosecutors obtained to secure and uphold Swearingen’s conviction, including cell phone records that put him near the spot Trotter’s body was found, her hair in his truck, and some of her school papers being found near his parents’ home. Blackburn also noted Swearingen’s actions after Trotter’s disappearance — saying he falsely reported a burglary when he and wife came back to their home in disarray. Trotter’s brand of cigarettes and a lighter were inside, even though neither Swearingen nor his wife smoked. And Swearingen also wrote an anonymous letter in Spanish with details of the crime scene to pull suspicion away from him. Swearingen later admitted to writing the letter, claiming the details came from an autopsy report he read. Blackburn said Tuesday some of the details were only known by police at the time. “When you look at all the forensic evidence, and then all of the other circumstantial evidence...the only person who has ever been tied to this murder is Larry Swearingen,” he said. The main conflicting points involving forensic science in Swearingen’s case were Trotter’s time of death, the matching of pantyhose and blood flecks found with her fingernail scrapings. The courts had long looked into the issues, sending Swearingen’s case back for reexamination several times and cancelling five previously-scheduled execution dates. Swearingen brought forward multiple forensic experts who contested the state’s theory that Trotter was killed on the day she went missing after being seen with Swearingen, 25 days before her body was found — including the original medical examiner who said as much at trial. They instead said her body was
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS
August 21 TEXASimpending execution After 19 Years On Death Row, Could Time Be Up For Larry Swearingen? Convicted killer Larry Swearingen is scheduled to be executed Wednesday. It was almost 20 years ago that Swearingen was found guilty of the abduction, rape and strangulation of Montgomery County college student Melissa Trotter. This is the sixth time that Larry Swearingen was given an execution date by the state of Texas. Once he was just minutes from being put to death. “When you're sitting there watching the clock, it really speeds up a lot faster,” Swearingen said. This could also be the sixth time Melissa Trotter’s mother, Sandy Trotter, goes through the process of watching the man convicted of murdering her daughter not be executed. “We are more than ready to be done so hopefully it’s looking more likely it’s going to happen. We’ve been delayed quite a few times,” Trotter said as she held a 6-month-old grandson on her knee. The whole family is going to be in Huntsville to witness the execution of Swearingen, which she said should have happened years ago. “It's been very frustrating for our family and horrific for the 92-year-old grandfather Charles Trotter Senior. He will be there viewing Swearingen executed,” Sandy said. Melissa went missing on Dec. 8, 1998 and her body was found 25 days later in the Sam Houston National Forest. After being presented with what the prosecution called a mountain of evidence, it took a jury just over 3 hours to convict Swearingen. Ever since, he has insisted on his innocence. “If they kill me, I won't be the first man that's been killed. I won't be the last. They killed Todd Willingham on junk science. I'm probably no different. But it doesn't mean I'm gonna roll over and just let them do what they want to do without a fight,” Swearingen said. Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in 2004 for the arson deaths of his children. It’s believed, although not officially acknowledged, that he was convicted on the misinterpretation of evidence and Texas executed an innocent man. Swearingen has filed appeals also claiming his conviction was based on junk science. But Sandy Trotter said she has no doubt that Swearingen is her daughter’s killer. “I 100% believe that the evidence is just overwhelming, overwhelming,” she said. “And the appeals court has even said that. It’s like the giant elephant sitting in the corner of the room.” Trotter said she believes there should be an appeal process for the death penalty cases but Swearingen has abused that process. “I think it really needs to be evaluated. He has had way too many appeals,” she said. “I mean they look at one little microscopic DNA something rather than looking at the whole picture.” Kelly Blackburn is with the Montgomery County D.A. office, which prosecuted Swearingen. He said this execution should have happened years ago. “We agree with everyone that before you put someone to death, everything should be done. We’re willing to do that and we're doing it in the most transparent manner possible,” he said. “Melissa Trotter's family understands that too, but its time.” Robert Dunham of the Death Penalty Information Center said the appeals process for Swearingen has taken a long time because of the flaws in the evidence used to convict him in the first place. “They don't consider in Mr. Swearingen’s case the seven different types of junk science. They look at it one piece at a time, and rule it out,” Dunham said. “In the end, what you have is delay of 19 years and the possibility, a very strong possibility that an innocent person may be executed.” Dunham said because of the questions with the evidence, the Supreme Court could grant a stay of execution. “Depending on the nature of the pleadings, the Supreme Court could send the case back for a review of the evidence where they could grant review to assess whether Mr. Swearingen has met the actual innocence requirements,” Dunham said. Blackburn said another stay doesn’t matter, eventually justice will be served. “If it takes 30 years to kill him, then that's what we're gonna do,” he said. “To say whether its takes too long, that's neither here nor there and not for me to say. It’s the system that we have.” (source: tpr.org) ___ A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
August 21 UGANDA: Uganda abolishes mandatory death penalty Parliament in Uganda has passed a law that abolishes the mandatory death penalty for certain crimes, amending four different laws that had earlier prescribed capital punishment, including the Anti-Terrorism Act. If approved by President Yoweri Museveni, the amendments will restrict the death penalty to just the most serious of crimes, only at the judge's discretion. Legislators say it is a step towards the complete abolition of capital punishment, something for which courts have previously voiced support. There are 133 inmates on death row and no-one has been executed in the last 20 years. There has been a campaign to end capital punishment, following a 2009 court ruling in favour of then death row inmate Susan Kigula, who had argued that the death sentence was unconstitutional. The court then ruled that the death penalty should not be mandatory in cases of murder, and that a condemned person should not be kept on death row indefinitely - if a convict was not executed within 3 years, the sentence be automatically turned into life imprisonment. (source: theeastafrican.co.ke) BANGLADESH: Aug 21 attack: AL will go to Supreme Court for death to Tarique Rahman Awami League will go to the top court to seek BNP acting chief Tarique Rahman’s maximum punishment in connection with Aug 21 grenade attack case. “He is the mastermind of the attack. We’ll definitely submit a writ petition to the Supreme Court to seek highest punishment for him,” said Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader responding to a question at an event in Dhaka on Wednesday. The event was organised to mark the 15th anniversary of August 21 grenade attack at the meeting venue of Awami League. A total of 24 people were killed and many others injured when a series of grenades ripped through the meeting of the party, then in opposition, on Bangabandhu Avenue on Aug 21, 2004. “Harkatul Jihad chief Mufti Abdul Hannan in a confessional statement said that they carried out the attack under the direction of Tarique Rahman. So, the mastermind behind the attack should get the capital punishment.” Quader added that the political relationship between BNP-Jamaat and the ruling party has been ruined forever after the Aug 15, 1975 assassination of Bangabandhu and the Aug 21, 2004 grenade attack. Expressing hope that the Aug 21 killings will be tried like Aug 15, he said, “The killings have been tried in the court. But we’re preparing the paper-book for the August 21 grenade attack cases and the hearings on death references will begin.” On Oct 10, 2018, a Dhaka court sentenced 19 people to death and Tarique Rahman along with 18 others to life imprisonment in two cases over the grenade attack. (source: bdnews24.com) PHILIPPINES: Lacson pushes treaty to help Filipino convicts abroad‘Transfer of Sentenced Persons’ to give convicts option to serve time in their home country Senator Panfilo Lacson on Monday, August 19, called for the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to pursue more Transfer of Sentenced Persons agreements with other countries, pointing out the efforts of the government to help Filipino drug convicts abroad while it is “killing people” in the Philippines. “How do you reconcile [the fact that] here in our country we’re killing people and then we’re saving drug convicts detained in another country. I’m just curious,” Lacson asked Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. during the hearing of the Senate foreign affairs relations committee. “Going back to the repatriation of Filipino convicts, maybe you should pursue more Transfer of Sentenced Persons treaties, just like what we have with Spain. I’m just wondering if they would agree to be transferred to Muntinlupa [that is, the New Bilibid Prison] from where they are being detained abroad,” he added. According to the Treaty on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons, individuals tried and convicted in a foreign country would have the option to serve their time remaining their sentence in their home country. Lacson’s statement came following the data released by the DFA during the meeting that showed that most Filipinos overseas were detained due to drug charges. Normally, the DFA offers financial and legal aid to Filipinos abroad through the assistance to nationals (ATN) or the legal assistance fund (LAF). DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs Sarah Lou Arriola said P1 billion is allotted for the ATN while the LAF has a P200 million budget. She added that the DFA has spent P483 million, or 48%, of its ATN fund and P81 million, 41%, of its LAF from January to July 2019. Arriola also noted that overseas Filipinos on death row due to conviction in drug cases had been provided with lawyers “since the inception of the case.” “It’s just that many of them are drug mules or some of them, like in the case in
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., N.MEX., COLO., UTAH, ORE.
August 21 TEXASimpending execution Texas Inmate Larry Swearingen To Be Executed Wednesday For Rape, Murder Of College Student Melissa Trotter A Texas death row inmate is set to be executed Wednesday for the abduction, rape and murder of a Houston area college student more than 20 years ago. Larry Swearingen has continued to maintain his innocence and contends his conviction was based on junk science. The 48-year-old is scheduled to receive a lethal injection in the evening for the December 1998 killing of Melissa Trotter. The 19-year-old 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. Prosecutors said they stand behind the “mountain of evidence” used to convict Swearingen in 2000. They described him as a sociopath with a criminal history of violence against women and said he tried to get a fellow death row inmate to take credit for his crime. Swearingen’s longtime appellate attorney, James Rytting, said he would ask the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the execution, arguing that lower courts “have failed to take into account the considerable amount of evidence of innocence.” Swearingen, who is also represented by the Innocence Project, has previously received five stays of execution. Appeals courts and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles declined to stop the execution. If it happens, Swearingen would be the 12th inmate put to death this year in the U.S. and the 4th in Texas. Kelly Blackburn, the trial bureau chief for the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted Swearingen, said Swearingen’s efforts to discredit the evidence have been unsuccessful because “his experts’ opinions don’t hold water.” “I have absolutely zero doubt that anybody but Larry Swearingen killed … Melissa Trotter,” Blackburn said. During a 2011 interview, Swearingen told The Associated Press that he was tired of being “demonized” for a crime he didn’t commit. “We’d all like to know who done it,” he said. Blackburn said Swearingen killed Trotter because he was angry that she had stood him up for a date. At the time of Trotter’s killing, Swearingen was under indictment for kidnapping a former fiancée. Swearingen has long tried to cast doubt on the evidence used to convict him, particularly claims by prosecution experts that Trotter’s body had been in the woods for 25 days. Rytting said at least 5 defense experts concluded that her body was there for no more than 14 days, and because Swearingen had already been arrested by then, he couldn’t have left her body there. Rytting maintains that a piece of pantyhose used to strangle Trotter was not a match to a piece found in Swearingen’s trailer. He also disputes prosecution experts’ claims dismissing blood found in Trotter’s fingernail shavings, saying the blood, which was determined to not be Swearingen’s, supports the defense theory that someone else killed her. In letters sent to Swearingen’s attorneys in July and August, the Texas Department of Public Safety said its technicians should not have been as definitive in their testimony about the blood found in the fingernails and the pantyhose match. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week turned down Swearingen’s challenge to the blood evidence and pantyhose match, citing the “mountain of evidence” that “seals Swearingen’s guilt for Trotter’s murder.” Blackburn said Swearingen has tried to get people to lie in order to give him an alibi. After his arrest, Swearingen got another inmate to write a letter Swearingen composed in Spanish that professed to be from the real killer and had it sent to his attorney. In 2017, Swearingen and another death row inmate, Anthony Shore, concocted a plan to get Shore to take responsibility for Trotter’s killing. Shore was executed last year. Rytting said Swearingen is guilty of doing “some very stupid things,” but prosecutors don’t have proof he killed Trotter. “Hopefully we are one step closer to giving (Trotter’s family) that justice that they’ve so long waited for,” Blackburn said. KHOU reports that Trotter’s parents are expected to witness Swearingen’s execution in Huntsville. (source: CBS News) * Larry Swearingen is set for execution for a 1998 Texas slaying. His lawyer says bad science got him on death row.Swearingen has maintained his innocence in the strangling death of 19-year-old Melissa Trotter. Texas prosecutors, however, have no doubt he is her killer. A staunch claim of innocence and doubts over forensic science have long engulfed the Texas death penalty case of Larry Swearingen. On Wednesday, for the 6th time, he is set for execution. The now 48-year-old man has lived on death row for nearly two decades, consistently expressing his innocence in the 1998 strangling death of Melissa Trotter, a 19-year-old community college
