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Huntsville - A judge on Wednesday halted the execution of a man known as the Houston area's "Tourniquet Killer" so authorities can investigate an alleged scheme in which the inmate says a fellow death row prisoner asked him to confess to another killing.
Anthony Allen Shore was scheduled to be given a lethal injection on Wednesday evening, but the judge withdrew the execution warrant at prosecutors' request just hours before Shore was set to die. His death was rescheduled for January 18.
"If this was my day, God's will be done. He gave me another 90 days," the 55-year-old Shore said in reaction to the execution delay, according to a Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesperson.
Another convicted killer, Larry Swearingen, allegedly tried to convince Shore to take responsibility for the 1998 killing of 19-year-old Melissa Trotter, according to Montgomery County District Attorney Brett Ligon. Swearingen was convicted of her slaying and put on death row for it. His execution is scheduled for November 16.
Ligon said investigators from his office spoke with Shore on Tuesday and he told them he wouldn't co-operate with Swearingen and instead chose to expose the scheme. Swearingen tried a similar scheme before his trial for Trotter's killing, the prosecutor said.
The US Supreme Court refused an appeal from Swearingen last October. His attorneys have long wanted additional DNA testing of evidence they say could show he didn't kill Trotter.
Shore became known as the "Tourniquet Killer" because of the way he strangled his victims. Shore, who is white, admitted to killing four Hispanic female victims from 1986 to 1995.
