On August 21, 2019 Larry Swearingen was executed by the Texas Department of Justice in Huntsville, Texas. Swearingen was convicted of the 1998 murder of 19-year-old Melissa Trotter and sentenced to death in 2000.
Despite his relentless claims of innocence and at least 5 defense experts who testified that Swearingen couldn’t have been the killer because he was in jail on unrelated traffic violations at the time of the murder, and that a different person’s DNA was found under Melissa Trotter’s fingernails.
Regardless of the evidence, Swearingen was put to death after a Stay of Execution was denied by the Supreme Court.
Did Texas execute an innocent man? Read more to decide.
