UPDATE 1-Texas executes man convicted of abducting, strangling college student

Texas on Wednesday put to death a man found guilty of the rape and murder of a 19-year-old college student in an execution that followed arguments from the inmate's attorneys that authorities ignored key evidence that would exonerate him.

Larry Swearingen, 48, who had faced five previous execution dates over the past two decades, was given a lethal injection and pronounced dead at 6:47 p.m. CDT at the state's death chamber in Huntsville, Jeremy Desel, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said in an email. Swearingen's last words were: "Lord forgive them. They don't know what they are doing," according to Desel. He had maintained his innocence in the case.

A jury convicted and sentenced Swearingen to die in 2000 for the murder of Melissa Trotter, who disappeared on Dec. 8, 1998. Trotter was found dead 25 days later in a densely wooded area in the Sam Houston National Forest with a piece of pantyhose around her neck. During Swearingen's trial, prosecutors laid out a case based on witness testimony, cellphone records and evidence found in his house and truck that they said linked him to her death.

On Monday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied Swearingen's request for clemency and the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday denied his request for a stay of execution. Swearingen was the 12th inmate executed in the United States and the fourth in Texas in 2019, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Texas has executed more prisoners than any other state since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.