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California | San Quentin begins prison reform - but not for those on death row

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California is transferring everyone on death row at San Quentin prison to other places, as it tries to reinvent the state's most notorious facility as a rehabilitation centre. Many in this group will now have new freedoms. But they are also asking why they've been excluded from the reform - and whether they'll be safe in new prisons. Keith Doolin still remembers the day in 2019 when workers came to dismantle one of the United States' most infamous death chambers.

Texas: Montgomery County DA asks governor to stay Anthony Shore's execution

"Tourniquet Killer" Anthony Shore
The Montgomery County District Attorney has asked Gov. Greg Abbott to halt the execution this evening of a notorious Harris County serial killer who launched a last-minute scheme to confess to another death row inmate's crime, officials said Wednesday.

"Tourniquet Killer" Anthony Shore is set to die by lethal injection, but Brett Ligon, top prosecutor in Montgomery County wants a stay because Shore's death will cloud up the pending execution of another man on death row. 

Ligon wrote the governor this week explaining that Shore planned to confess to a slaying for which his fellow death row inmate Larry Swearingen was sentenced to death. 

Tom Berg, first assistant to Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said he thought the Montgomery County DA's letter requesting a stay went out earlier this week.

"They've got their own death penalty case and supposedly there was some idea that Shore was going to claim he killed the person the other person killed and that would cloud their execution," Berg said. 

Swearingen is slated for execution next month for the 1998 murder of college student Melissa Trotter, a crime for which he has long maintained his innocence. 

Shore's lawyers and the Office of the Attorney General did not return requests for comment.

But following a last-minute visit to death row on Tuesday, Laurel Scheel - the killer's sister - got word of a possible reprieve.

An official told her "the DA in Montgomery requested a 30-day stay," she said early Wednesday.

Her brother also hinted at something afoot. 

"He said that there was a possibility that he wouldn't go today," Scheel said. "But I didn't ask him why - I didn't want to empower him."

In the days leading up to her visit, Scheel and her sister had speculated about the possibility of more victims.

"I know in my heart without a doubt that there are more," Gina Shore, the killer's other sister, said. "There had to have been other girls."

The former telephone technician was convicted in 2004 of raping and murdering Maria del Carmen Estrada - and when he appeared for sentencing, he begged the court for a death sentence.

Shore's murderous rampage started in 1986, when he slaughtered 14-year-old Laurie Tremblay. Six years later, he raped and murdered 21-year-old Estrada before leaving her naked body in the drive-through of a Spring Branch Dairy Queen.

In 1994, he killed 9-year-old Diana Rebollar. When her battered body was found, she was wearing only a black Halloween T-shirt — and a ligature twisted around her neck.

Less than a year later, he murdered 16-year-old Dana Sanchez, then reportedly called a local TV station to report a serial killer on the loose.

The cases went unsolved for nearly two decades, until Shore had to register as a sex offender after he was convicted of molesting two family members.

Eventually, authorities linked Shore's newly registered DNA to evidence from the cold cases. When they brought him in for questioning, Shore calmly confessed to a string of rapes and murder in the Harris County area.

Now, he's scheduled to meet his fate in Huntsville at 6 p.m.

Source: Houston Chronicle, Keri Blakinger and Gabrielle Banks, October 18, 2017


Montgomery County DA Ligon uncovers Swearingen scheme to have fellow inmate confess to Trotter murder


Larry Ray Swearingen
Death row inmate Anthony Allen Shore has come forward and told Montgomery County District Attorney's Office that fellow death row inmate Larry Ray Swearingen attempted to persuade him to take responsibility for the murder of Melissa Trotter - the crime for which Swearingen is scheduled to be executed on Nov. 16, 2017.

Shore is scheduled to die by lethal injection tonight.

"Larry Ray Swearingen has tried this scheme before while waiting for his original trial," District Attorney Brett Ligon told The Courier exclusively. "As the appellate courts have stressed, there is a mountain of evidence supporting the conviction and execution of Mr. Swearingen. I am not surprised in the least that he would have attempted this scheme to avoid his overdue date with justice."

According to a release from Ligon, Shore told chief investigator Chris Smith and assistant chief investigator John Stephenson that he conspired with Swearingen to take responsibility for Melissa Trotter's murder, but had a change of heart shortly before his execution date and decided to come forward with the truth and expose Swearingen's scheme.

Shore identified a map found in Shore's death row cell as one of the items Swearingen gave Shore in an effort to enable him to make a convincing admission of Trotter's murder," the release stated.

Dubbed the Tourniquet Killer, Shore was convicted of capital murder in 2004 after he confessed to brutally slaying four young women in the Houston area.

In the interview conducted at the Polunsky unit on Oct. 17 Shore said he initially refused Swearingen's request that he take responsibility for Trotter's murder, but eventually became friends with Swearingen and agreed to try to exonerate Swearingen of the crime as a favor to Swearingen, according to the DA's office. He said that Swearingen gave him a hand-drawn map of the location where Swearingen had left physical evidence of the murder of Melissa Trotter.

According to Ligon, Shore's revelation came shortly after he asked Gov. Greg Abbott to grant Shore a single 30 day reprieve, in order to allow him to complete an investigation of the materials found in Shore's cell on death row at the Polunsky Unit July 21.

That request remains pending at this time.

Harris County District Attorney's Office conducted an inventory of the contents of Shore's cell in July, in anticipation of a potential claim regarding Shore's mental health.

"They discovered a folder containing approximately ten items pertaining to the murder of Melissa Trotter, including copies of court exhibits and scene photographs; a hand-drawn page of a calendar for the month of December, 1998, with handwritten notations regarding weather conditions; and a hand-drawn map which appears to depict the location where Melissa Trotter's body was found," the DA release stated. "The handwriting on the map is dissimilar to Shore's distinctive handwriting, but bears similarities to Swearingen's hand-writing."

The Harris County District Attorney's Office informed the Montgomery County District Attorney of the discovery of the material in Shore's cell on September 1 after the District Court for the Ninth Judicial District issued an order setting an execution date for Swearingen.

Ligon launched the investigation that led to an interview with a woman who had visited Shore at the Polunsky Unit. She said that Shore told her that he expected to take responsibility for Melissa Trotter's murder shortly before Shore's execution. She also said that Shore was aware of the location of physical evidence pertaining to Trotter's murder, according to the DA's office.

Ligon said he would not provide any further details.

Source: The courier, Catherine Dominguez, October 18, 2017


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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

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