STORY: "Is Larry Swearingen Innocent?: Nine forensic experts say
Swearingen is on death row for a murder he couldn’t have committed, yet
Texas courts won’t grant a new trial," by reporter Alex Hannaford, published in the Observer, on November 27, 2012.
GIST: "In February, nine forensic experts took the stand at an evidentiary hearing for convicted murderer Larry Swearingen to explain that precisely because of this decomposition science, they were sure that Trotter hadn’t been dead very long when her body was discovered— as little as a day; as long as 14. Either way, Swearingen couldn’t have killed her, they said, because at the time of her death he was in jail. In March, the presiding judge, Fred Edwards, said he couldn’t rule on whether Swearingen should be given a retrial without referring back to the transcripts of the original trial, and that these would take some time to prepare. His decision finally came on October 1 when Edwards ruled Swearingen had failed to establish his innocence and recommended that the Court of Criminal Appeals not grant a retrial. In his ruling, Edwards described the field of histology—the well-established science of the anatomy of tissues and cells—as a “novel scientific theory” that required proof of reliability. All of which means that Swearingen will remain on death row until the Court of Criminal Appeals makes its decision. If, as expected, the Court accepts Judge Edwards’s recommendations, Swearingen will be in line for his third, and perhaps final, execution date. And then Texas could be putting an innocent man to death."
GIST: "In February, nine forensic experts took the stand at an evidentiary hearing for convicted murderer Larry Swearingen to explain that precisely because of this decomposition science, they were sure that Trotter hadn’t been dead very long when her body was discovered— as little as a day; as long as 14. Either way, Swearingen couldn’t have killed her, they said, because at the time of her death he was in jail. In March, the presiding judge, Fred Edwards, said he couldn’t rule on whether Swearingen should be given a retrial without referring back to the transcripts of the original trial, and that these would take some time to prepare. His decision finally came on October 1 when Edwards ruled Swearingen had failed to establish his innocence and recommended that the Court of Criminal Appeals not grant a retrial. In his ruling, Edwards described the field of histology—the well-established science of the anatomy of tissues and cells—as a “novel scientific theory” that required proof of reliability. All of which means that Swearingen will remain on death row until the Court of Criminal Appeals makes its decision. If, as expected, the Court accepts Judge Edwards’s recommendations, Swearingen will be in line for his third, and perhaps final, execution date. And then Texas could be putting an innocent man to death."
http://www.texasobserver.org/is-larry-swearingen-innocent/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.
The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html
Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
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