Deutsche Welle reports on the case of Larry Swearingen, "Justice is debatable in Texas death penalty case." It's written by Andrew Purcell. Here's the beginning:
In his 12 years on death row, Larry Swearingen's execution date has been set three times. Three times he has known when he will be strapped to a stretcher and put down with drugs: sodium thiobarbital to anesthetize him, pancurium bromide to paralyze his muscles and potassium chloride to stop his heart.
In January 2009, he had written his goodbyes and was on his way to the chamber when the stay of execution came through. "The way I had to look at it was 'I'm just gonna lay down and go to sleep,'" he said. "I wasn't gonna grovel. I wasn't gonna sit there and cry. I can't be remorseful for a crime I didn't commit."
Swearingen lives at the Allan B. Polunsky unit, an hour or so north of Houston, together with around 300 men and women awaiting execution for capital crimes committed in Texas. He is kept in solitary confinement 24 hours a day, in a cell not quite four meters long (13 feet) and a little over two meters wide, with a slit above head height, more a vent than a window.
Swearingen is strikingly calm, his voice rarely rising, even as he complains about the injustice of being locked up for a murder that forensic science shows he cannot have committed.
Earlier coverage of Larry Swearingen's case begins at the link. Related posts are in the forensics index.
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