STORY: "Death Row: Larry Swearingen inmate seeking new DNA testing", by reporter Brandi Grisson, published by the Digital Texan on January 17, 2013.
PHOTO CAPTION: "Death
row inmate Larry Swearingen during an interview at the Polunsky Unit in
Livingston, Texas. He was sentenced to death for the murder of Melissa
Trotter. He says he is innocent and that she was killed while he was
already in jail for other offenses."
GIST: "After Texas courts rejected a litany of scientific testimony
that Larry Swearingen and his lawyers say proves that he was in jail at
the time of the 1998 murder for which he is set to be executed next
month, his lawyers are seeking new DNA testing and asking the state’s
highest criminal court to reconsider its latest rejection.
In a motion filed Thursday with the state’s Ninth District Court in Montgomery County, James Rytting, a lawyer for Swearingen, and
lawyers from the New York-based Innocence Project asked the court for a
fourth time to allow DNA testing on evidence they say could prove
Swearingen’s innocence in the death of 19-year-old Melissa Trotter and
perhaps lead to her real killer. Rytting, in a separate motion filed
Wednesday with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, has also asked the
judges to again review the dispute over whether scientific evidence
proves it was impossible for Swearingen to have killed Trotter. “Our belief is we have proved he’s innocent 10 times over,” Rytting said.The entire story can be found at:
http://digitaltexan.net/2013/state/death-row-larry-swearingen-inmate-seeking-dna-testing/article45227/#.UPwUuuhreHk
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.
