Texas 'Tourniquet Killer' Execution Postponed
A Texas judged postponed the execution of a serial rapist and murderer after it was discovered that an inmate in death row persuaded him to take the fall for a murder which he did not commit.
Harris County Judge Maria Jackson granted a 90-day stay of execution to Anthony Allen Shore, 55, three hours before he was sentenced to die by lethal injection for a series of murders he committed in the '80s and '90s.
Inmate Larry Ray Swearington, who is also on death row, persuaded Shore to admit to the 1998 abduction and murder of Melissa Trotter. Prosecutors believe Shore would have gone with the plan, which could have gotten Swearington exonerated.
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After through sweep of Shore's cell, photographs and handwritten documents of Trotter's murder were uncovered. Prosecutors believe Swearington was coaching Shore to make the confession more believable.
Shore has been dubbed the Tourniquet Killer, which pertains to the manner in which he killed his victims. He murdered five children and young women by strangling them with handmade tourniquets. The crimes were unsolved for over a decade up until Shore was arrested for molesting his two daughters.
The urine sample which he provided authorities in 1998 was tested a few years later against cold-case files. His DNA turned out to be a perfect match to the DNA found on the body of Maria del Carmen Estrada, whom he killed in 1992. Shore eventually admitted to other murders.
Other victims included Laurie Tremblay, 14, whom he murdered in 1986, and another 14-year-old whom he murdered in 1993. He also killed Dana Rebollar in 1994. She was only 9. And in 1995, he murdered Dana Sanchez, 16. All of his victims he raped and murdered by strangulation.
Shore's execution has been pushed back to Jan. 18, 2018.
