The Houston Chronicle is call­ing on Texas Governor Rick Perry to delay the exe­cu­tion of Larry Swearingen, which is sched­uled for January 27. The Chronicle notes that the foren­sic sci­en­tist who tes­ti­fied about the time of death of the vic­tim at Swearingen’s tri­al now believes the death occurred lat­er, a time at which Swearingen was in police cus­tody on anoth­er mat­ter. Five oth­er physi­cians and foren­sic experts con­curred that the mur­der occurred after the time that Swearingen was arrest­ed on a traf­fic mat­ter. Blood and hair sam­ples from the vic­tim also indi­cat­ed the pres­ence of anoth­er assailant. Dr. Glenn Larkin, a retired foren­sic pathol­o­gist who reviewed the case, told the Texas Monthly that ​“no ratio­nal and intel­lec­tu­al­ly hon­est per­son can look at the evi­dence and con­clude Larry Swearingen is guilty of this horrible crime.”

There have been 5 exe­cu­tions so far in 2009 – 100% have occurred in the south, and 60% in Texas. Three more exe­cu­tions are sched­uled in January, all in Texas.

(Editorial, ​“Room for Doubt,” Houston Chronicle, Jan. 22, 2009). See Innocence and Editorials.

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