Texas executes man over student murder

Texas has executed a man who maintained his innocence in the abduction, rape and murder of a suburban Houston community college student more than 20 years ago.

Larry Swearingen received a lethal injection on Wednesday at the state penitentiary in Huntsville.

The 48-year-old Swearingen was condemned for the December 1998 killing of 19-year-old Melissa Trotter. Her body was found nearly a month after she was last seen leaving her community college in Conroe.

Swearingen argued that his conviction was based on junk science. Prosecutors said they stood behind the "mountain of evidence" used to convict Swearingen in 2000.

The US Supreme Court refused to halt the execution.

Swearingen was the 12th inmate put to death this year in the US and the fourth in Texas, the nation's busiest capital punishment state. Eleven more executions are scheduled in Texas this year.