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Larry Swearingen |
Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Supreme Court today refused to consider stopping the execution of Larry Ray Swearingen, a Texas death row inmate who says newly uncovered evidence proves his innocence.
Swearingen's lawyers had asked the high court to decide for the first time whether executing an innocent person constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under the Constitution.
Lower federal courts declined to intervene in Swearingen's case in part because, as the law now stands, even uncontested scientific proof of innocence isn't a valid reason for a federal judge to stop an execution.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who opposed Swearingen's request for a Supreme Court hearing, said Swearingen's new scientific testimony doesn't outweigh a "mountain" of other evidence "that Swearingen is guilty of capital murder."
Federal courts also don't need to intervene because Texas's justice system provides methods for review of innocence claims, the state attorney general's brief said. A state court has said it will consider Swearingen's claims, Abbott said. Swearingen also could get a pardon or commutation from Texas Governor Rick Perry.
Source: SFGate, Feb. 27, 2012
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