On
this date, December 8, 1998, Melissa Trotter was murdered by Larry Swearingen
in Sam Houston National Forest. In loving
memory of her, we will make her one of the 26 Christian
Martyrs of Unit 1012 and we will remember her every year on November 26
and December 8.
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Melissa Trotter, 19, was a student at Lone
Star College when she was raped and murdered in 1998.
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INTERNET
SOURCE: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/DNA-testing-debate-clouds-fate-of-convicted-killer-6317516.php
DNA testing
debate clouds fate of convicted killer
Man has dodged execution 5 times in
teen's murder
June 9, 2015 Updated: June 10, 2015 11:09am
The cross that Sandy Trotter has worn
around her neck for the past 16 years once belonged to her daughter, Melissa, a
freshman at Lone Star College's Montgomery campus.
Trotter wants to remember her daughter
wearing that cross, not the graphic police photos showing pantyhose wrapped
around her neck after she was found strangled in the Sam Houston National
Forest.
"It's horrible thinking what she
went through," the retired nurse said of her daughter, and "having to
relive those last images, over and over."
But she has done just that as Larry
Ray Swearingen, her daughter's convicted killer, has avoided execution five
times for the 1998 kidnapping, rape and murder of Melissa Trotter of Willis.
Swearingen was 29 when he was first
locked in a small cell on death row. Although Texas ranks first in the nation
in number of executions, Swearingen has lived to middle age - 44 - while kept
in isolation, except for a TV and an occasional hour outside alone in the
recreation yard.
Swearingen, who shaves his head now
and wears wire-rim glasses, continues to profess his innocence.
"The way I look at it, I'm a POW
of Texas," the electrician has told the media. "It's my army against
their army."
Meanwhile, his capital murder case
continues to lie at the center of a debate over when post-conviction DNA
testing should be allowed in Texas.
Swearingen's attorneys and Montgomery
County prosecutors say the case prompted two changes to state law that broaden
a convicted criminal's access to DNA testing - including one signed recently by
Gov. Rick Abbott.
Both sides strongly disagree over
whether these changes will alter or have any impact on Swearingen's planned
execution. The first change to state law, passed in 2011, made any evidence
containing biological material available for testing even if a DNA issue was
never raised in the original trial.
The newest change removes the hurdle
of proving biological material exists that might be invisible to the eye such
as saliva, sweat and skin cells - instead requiring only that there be a
"reasonable likelihood" it exists.
"DNA testing has already
exonerated 52 innocent Texans and the real criminals were later identified in
21 of those cases," said Texas Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, who sponsored
the changes. He believes the changes will prevent even more miscarriages of
justice.
Defense emphatic
Barry Scheck, co-director of the New
York-based Innocence Project, which has represented Swearingen, said Texas
lawmakers have "made it clear that DNA testing should be allowed when
there is a possibility it could help prove innocence, and the testing that Mr.
Swearingen is seeking could shed light on many unanswered questions in his
case."
His other attorney, James Rytting of
Houston, agreed. "We believe this testing could help show Swearingen was
not the last person with the victim, that she was with someone else,"
Rytting said.
Montgomery County prosecutor Bill
Delmore does not believe the these changes will reverse Swearingen's conviction
or help him succeed with his fifth motion for DNA testing, now pending before
the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The appellate courts have already rejected
four previous requests dating back to 2004.
"No amount of DNA
testing will change the fact that Melissa Trotter was strangled with the torn
panty hose found on her body - the other half of which was found in
Swearingen's trailer by his landlord, which experts said was a microscopic
match to the exclusion of all others to the one around her neck," Delmore said.
He stressed that a lot of DNA testing
has already been done, such as matching Swearingen's DNA profile to a hair
found on the panty-hose fragment in his trailer. Also, two hairs removed by the
root were discovered inside Swearingen's truck that match Melissa's DNA
profile, Delmore noted.
Witnesses testified that Swearingen,
who was married, bragged of his plans to meet the victim for lunch on Dec. 8,
1998 and, if all went well, he "would then have her for lunch,"
Delmore said. Witnesses also reported seeing them together that day by the
campus library, where the victim's car was later found abandoned.
Swearingen maintains he left her on
campus. He has said someone else later "planted" the damaging
evidence at his trailer.
His motion requests DNA testing of
several items - portions of which have already been tested - including
fingernail scrapings, clothing, cigarette butts, panty-hose ligature, the rape
kit and some stray hairs. Prosecutors conceded the revised law will eliminate
one of the appellate court's previous objections to further DNA testing,
because Swearingen will no longer have the burden of proving biological
material exists for testing. But he must still address two other key
requirements that the appeals court has said he failed to meet, Delmore said.
Swearingen would have to show new DNA
analysis could overcome the "overwhelming mountain of evidence"
against him and lead to a different verdict.
The defense would also have to show
items requested for testing have been properly secured to prevent
contamination, tampering or substitution.
The appellate court has previously
ruled that simply finding stray DNA from another person might "muddy the
waters" and not necessarily exclude Swearingen as the killer.
"The panty hose, for example,
were sent to defense experts in California and Ontario for testing without any
supervision by a state representative," Delmore said. "And nobody has
addressed how the clothing and other evidence has been handled while stored by
the district clerk and sheriff for the last 16 years."
Covering his tracks
State District Judge Kelly Case found
no reason to believe there had been contamination when he approved Swearingen's
motion for DNA testing, which is pending on appeal. He found the "mountain
of evidence" against Swearingen might be overcome if a new DNA profile
were developed and then linked to several different pieces of evidence from the
crime scene.
Case also declared some "factual
findings" from Swearingen's trial to be "clearly erroneous."
For instance, in the original trial,
experts testified they found fibers uniquely similar to Swearingen's bedroom
carpet and his jacket that had been transferred to the victim's jacket. Experts
also said they'd found fibers similar to the victim's jacket inside
Swearingen's truck.
But Judge Case noted the autopsy said
the victim had been wearing a sweater, not a jacket.
Delmore scoffed at that finding,
saying the court record showed witnesses had positively identified that piece
of clothing, which was referred to as both a jacket and a sweater.
Swearingen, he added, has gone to
great extremes to cover his tracks, including fabricating a letter written in
Spanish that was purported to be from the real killer.
"We're very confident that we
have the right guy. We've executed on far less," he said. "Three
other women even testified during the punishment phase that between 1992 and
1998 he had also kidnapped and sexually assaulted them, including instances
that involved panty hose."
Rytting countered that his client was
never charged with any of these crimes. In fact, the defense believes
Swearingen was in jail when the victim was actually killed.
Three days after the young coed
vanished, Swearingen was arrested on some outstanding traffic tickets. Her body
was not found in the forest until a month later. Swearingen's attorneys have
produced statements from three medical examiners and a forensic pathologist who
say the victim's body was too well-preserved to have been lying outside in the
forest since Swearingen's arrest.
"These forensic scientists stand
by their reports and testimony, which exonerate Mr. Swearingen. That is why we
continue to defend him and why we are anxious for DNA testing," Rytting
said.
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Charles and Sandy Trotter, parents of the
slain student, say killer Larry Ray Swearingen has become a poster boy for
those opposed to the death penalty.
[PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/DNA-testing-debate-clouds-fate-of-convicted-killer-6317516.php#photo-8125532]
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Unanswered questions
Delmore pointed to a two-week court
hearing at which, he says, renowned forensic pathologists such as Werner Spitz
refuted those claims - and the appeals court concurred.
"Bottom line is that you can't
accurately predict time of death when a body is found several days out,"
Delmore said.
Rytting said other questions remain
unanswered. For example, earlier DNA testing showed that blood found under the
victim's fingernails belonged to a man, but not Swearingen.
Meanwhile, the victim's parents
believe Swearingen's appeals should have ended years ago.
"He's become the poster
child for those with an anti-death penalty agenda. This has nothing to do with
guilt or innocence,"
said Charles Trotter, a retired Houston computer technician. "Some on death row may be innocent, but he's not one of
them."
Swearingen filed a motion on his own
two months ago, decrying poor treatment and asking the courts to terminate his
appeals and set an execution date. He withdrew it days later.
Reporter, The Woodlands, Houston
Chronicle
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