Thread by @TexasTribune

1/ Texas executed tonight Larry Swearingen for the killing of 19-year-old Melissa Trotter.

He has maintained his innocence. His lawyer says bad science got him on death row.

His final words: “Lord forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing.” bit.ly/2HhpDc2

2/ Texas prosecutors, however, had no doubt he was her killer.

A late appeal was denied by the Supreme Court minutes before his scheduled execution time.

He was then injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital and pronounced dead at 6:47 p.m.

bit.ly/2HhpDc2

3/ Melissa Trotter had been missing for weeks before her body was found by hunters in the Sam Houston National Forest on Jan. 2, 1999.

Law enforcement had already pegged Larry Swearingen as the main suspect. bit.ly/2HhpDc2

4/ Swearingen's legal team relentlessly fought his conviction.

Numerous scientists concluded that Trotter was killed within two weeks of being found — more than a week after Swearingen was already behind bars.

bit.ly/2HhpDc2

5/ His legal team also argued against the science used by state experts who matched a leg of pantyhose in his home to the piece used to strangle Trotter.

bit.ly/2HhpDc2

6/ And, his legal team balked at the courts’ dismissal of blood flecks found under the victim's fingernails that did not match her nor Larry Swearingen. bit.ly/2HhpDc2

7/ The Montgomery County district attorney’s office, however, has zero doubt that Swearingen was Trotter’s killer.

bit.ly/2HhpDc2

8/ The DA's office cites a list of circumstantial evidence used to secure the conviction, including cell phone records that put him near the spot her body was found, her hair in his truck, and some of her school papers being found near his parents’ home. bit.ly/2HhpDc2

9/ The DA's office also noted Swearingen’s actions after Trotter’s disappearance:
+ He falsely reported a burglary
+ Trotter’s brand of cigarettes and a lighter were found inside Swearingen’s home, even though neither Swearingen nor his wife smoked. bit.ly/2HhpDc2

10/ Swearingen also wrote an anonymous letter in Spanish with details of the crime scene to pull suspicion away from him.

Swearingen later admitted to writing the letter, claiming the details came from an autopsy report he read. bit.ly/2HhpDc2

11/ The courts had long looked into the allegations of bad science, sending Swearingen’s case back for reexamination several times and cancelling five previously-scheduled execution dates. bit.ly/2HhpDc2

12/ The main conflicting points involving forensic science in Swearingen’s case were Trotter’s time of death, the matching of pantyhose and blood flecks found with her fingernail scrapings. bit.ly/2HhpDc2

13/13 Larry Swearingen was the fourth person executed in Texas this year, and the 12th in the nation.

Eleven other men are scheduled for execution in Texas through December. bit.ly/2HhpDc2