By JUAN A. LOZANO and MICHAEL GRACZYK
Associated Press

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) - A Texas death row inmate who has long maintained his innocence is facing execution for the abduction, rape and murder of a suburban Houston community college student more than 20 years ago.

Larry Swearingen is set to receive a lethal injection Wednesday evening for the December 1998 killing of 19-year-old Melissa Trotter. Her body was found nearly a month after she was last seen leaving the college in Conroe.

Swearingen's attorneys plan to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the execution, arguing that lower courts haven't taken into account "the considerable amount of evidence of innocence."

Prosecutors say Swearingen has a history of violence against women and they stand behind the "mountain of evidence" used to convict him in 2000.

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