CSI: Texas Style

January 26, 2009 at 5:24 PM

Larry Swearingen has received a stay of execution.  He was one of 14 prisoners scheduled for execution in Texas between the beginning of this year and early April.  (Of those 14, three – all African American – have already been put to death, and the other ten are all either African American or Hispanic.)

For Swearingen, forensic evidence that now raises serious doubts about his guilt seem to have swayed the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to put the execution on hold and allow him to file a further appeal in Federal District Court.  Several forensic pathologists, including the woman who conducted the victim’s autopsy, are now saying that the time of death occurred when Swearingen was in jail for some traffic violations,  so that he could not have committed the crime.

The 5th Circuit found both that Swearingen’s defense was deficient and that the prosecutors provided “false and misleading forensic testimony.”

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10 thoughts on “CSI: Texas Style”

  1. Not another… How can the death penalty be justified when so many of those on death row could potentially be innocent?

  2. It really does boggle the mind, doesn't it? People would rather wrap cases up in neat little packages, even if it means killing some innocents along the way. Ridiculous.

  3. Not another… How can the death penalty be justified when so many of those on death row could potentially be innocent?

  4. It really does boggle the mind, doesn’t it? People would rather wrap cases up in neat little packages, even if it means killing some innocents along the way. Ridiculous.

  5. Stop killing period. We have no foolproof system of justice, the states carrying out executions cannot afford to make mistakes were life is concerned. Until the state can prove WITHOUT A QUESTION OF DOUBT stop the killing.

  6. Stop killing period. We have no foolproof system of justice, the states carrying out executions cannot afford to make mistakes were life is concerned. Until the state can prove WITHOUT A QUESTION OF DOUBT stop the killing.

  7. UMMMMMMMMMMM……….. do you expect the US to stop using the death penalty because there MIGHT POTENTIALLY be someone innocent??? What about all those murders and serial killers?? next you'll be saying to let them free because…………. poor killer he didn't know what he was doing! You people surprise me everyday!! Besides if he was a valid suspect that means he was doing something funky!! I SAY WE GIVE ALL THE PEOPLE THAT ARE ON DEATH-ROW TO THE IRAQIS AND GET IT DONE WITH!!! NO MORE TEN YEARS AND APPEALS PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID!!!!

  8. UMMMMMMMMMMM……….. do you expect the US to stop using the death penalty because there MIGHT POTENTIALLY be someone innocent??? What about all those murders and serial killers?? next you’ll be saying to let them free because…………. poor killer he didn’t know what he was doing! You people surprise me everyday!! Besides if he was a valid suspect that means he was doing something funky!! I SAY WE GIVE ALL THE PEOPLE THAT ARE ON DEATH-ROW TO THE IRAQIS AND GET IT DONE WITH!!! NO MORE TEN YEARS AND APPEALS PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID!!!!

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