Prosecutors are pessimistic about the likelihood that a state district court judge in Montgomery County will ever agree to set an execution date for Larry Ray Swearingen.
Swearingen was convicted in July 2000 of the capital murder of community college student Melissa Trotter.
His appellate attorney is still hopeful that exculpatory evidence from DNA testing will show that Swearingen could not have been the killer because he was serving time in the Montgomery County Jail for unrelated warrants when Trotter was believed to have been kidnapped and killed.
There have been six motions filed by Swearingen seeking additional DNA testing, all of which have been appealed by the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office.
Both sides have filed briefs with the Court of Criminal Appeals and are waiting to learn whether the higher court will hear oral arguments before issuing a ruling, Assistant District Attorney Bill Delmore said.
The CCA affirmed former 9th state District Court Judge Fred Edwards’ denial of Swearingen’s fourth motion for DNA testing in 2010 on grounds that he can never satisfy the requirement that exculpatory results of testing would cause a different outcome in light of the “mountain of inculpatory evidence” of his guilt, including the discovery at Swearingen’s residence of the remaining half of the pantyhose used to strangle Trotter.
However, 9th state District Court Judge Kelly Case, who defeated Edwards in 2012 (Edwards passed away in 2014), granted Swearingen’s fifth motion for DNA testing, and the CCA reversed that order in February. Less than six months later, Case again granted the same renewed request for testing, plus additional testing sought in a supplemental sixth motion.
Source: The Courier, Brandon K. Scott, January 5, 2015
.jpg)
