Jan. 16
TEXAS----impending execution
Houston killer facing execution this week admitted to 2 more slayings in morbid
hoax
He didn't scream or laugh. He didn't plead or apologize.
Anthony Shore was calm, almost stoic, when he confessed to the murders - just
like he was 20 years ago.
But this time, apparently, it was a lie.
Days before his aborted execution in October, the notorious Houston serial
killer admitted to 2 more gruesome slayings in an apparent ruse to test
investigators, sources familiar with the case told the Chronicle this week.
Now, he's scheduled once again to meet his fate Thursday in Huntsville's death
chamber, leaving behind a swirl of unanswered questions.
"With a serial killer like Shore, there is always a possibility he has
committed other crimes, left other unknown victims behind," said Harris County
District Attorney Kim Ogg.
At the moment, prosecutors said, he's officially not a suspect in any unsolved
killings and has no unresolved appeals.
After 4 brutal strangulations, a pair of apparently false confessions, a
bizarre death row plot and a slew of creative appeals, the end of the
decades-long drama may finally be in sight.
"I am relieved that he's finally going to be put to rest," his sister, Laurel
Scheel, told the Chronicle Monday. "His expiration date is finally coming."
The serial sadist known as the Tourniquet Killer terrorized the Houston area in
the 1980s and 1990s, leaving behind a trail of bodies. All girls and young
women, tortured and raped.
He escaped detection for nearly 2 decades, but ultimately it was DNA - put on
file after he was convicted of molesting his daughters and forced to register
as a sex offender - that brought police to his door in 2003.
The former wrecker driver coolly confessed to 4 murders and a rape. Then,
during his 2004 trial, he begged the court for a death sentence.
After nearly 2 decades of appeals blaming everything from ineffective lawyers
to previously unrealized brain damage, the 55-year-old was slated to die by
lethal injection on Oct. 18.
At the time, his youngest sister predicted he'd avoid death with a last-minute
confession.
"He's good at keeping things hidden," Scheel said in October.
And sure enough, hours before the scheduled execution, a judge called it all
off in light of an alleged confession plot that would have seen him admit to
another man's crime, threatening to muddy the waters in a Montgomery County
death row case and save a jailhouse friend from the death chamber.
Eventually, according to defense lawyer K. Knox Nunnally, Shore signed a
statement admitting he had nothing to do with the Willis-area crime, the 1998
slaying of Melissa Trotter.
He still maintains his death row friend, Larry Swearingen, is innocent.
But, according to an unanswered Oct. 16 reprieve request sent to Gov. Greg
Abbott, Shore also promised he'd give written answers "regarding his commission
of other murders" to be revealed by his attorney after his death.
That never happened, Nunnally said.
Instead, the Texas Rangers showed up.
***
At first, Shore wanted nothing to do with them. But the lawmen came back again
and again, according to sources close to the case. Then one night, the week
before he was to be put to death, he opened up.
There were others, he said. 2, to be exact.
One was Aurora Rojas, a missing mother whose skull was found in a Polk County
field in 1995 - just a couple miles away from one of Shore's in-laws.
In years past, he'd already been a suspect in the case. But forensic evidence
was scant, at best. Police only recovered the woman's bra and 10 % of her
skeletonized body, investigators said.
Even though the slain woman was last spotted at a bus stop blocks from where
Shore worked at the time, there was never enough to tie him to the killing.
Shore had a penchant for picking up women at bus stops, and Rojas fit the
profile. Yet, the dump site - way out in the country - didn't quite fit Shore's
pattern.
But in his last-minute confession, Shore didn't know the right details about
the case, or in the other killing he confessed to - an unsolved slaying near
the notorious Texas Killing Fields southeast of Houston.
He'd once been a suspect in that slaying as well. But after a busy night of
examining "timelines and scientific testing," the Rangers determined he
couldn't have done it, according to a source familiar with the investigation.
The next day, the lawmen returned to confront him, and he recanted.
"He was playing, just probing around," said another source familiar with the
case. "With this guy who knows what he's going to say. You know he's done more
crimes than he's been caught doing. The question is what crimes and where."
***
Tiffany Hall groaned when she heard of her father's apparently false
confessions.
"He's just crazy," she said. "I am not shocked by his behavior. I'm just
shocked anybody is listening to him."
Scheel tutted in disgust.
"What an ass," she said. "He wants to know it'll all go down with him pulling
the strings. As long he's in control, he's okay with dying."
Manipulative and controlling, the charismatic erstwhile musical prodigy has
showed scant concern for the killings or their consequences, until recently.
In letters to his family over the past year, he's spoken of wanting to live "a
bit longer" and even hinted at remorse.
"Maybe he's just working it," Scheel said. "It's hard to know what the truth
is."
But some things are certain. He's never tried denying the original confessions
he offered up in 2003.
In 1986, he slaughtered 14-year-old Laurie Tremblay, snatching the girl up on
her way to the bus stop then dumping her corpse behind a Ninfa's Restaurant. 6
years later, he raped and murdered 21-year-old Maria del Carmen 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.
All of the victims were raped and tortured before he strangled them with
handmade tourniquets.
Even after the conviction for molesting his daughters forced him onto the sex
offender registry in 1998, it took another 5 years before authorities finally
tested cold-case evidence and matched a murder to Shore.
"I think he knew he was going to get caught," Scheel said.
Now, 15 years later, he's scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. on
Thursday.
"I think it'll happen this time," Schell said. "But who knows, we're talking
about Tony Shore."
Does she still think her brother killed anybody else?
"Hell, yeah," she said. "He's a piece of work, that boy."
*******************
Houston death row inmate behind 1995 double shooting loses federal appeal
A Houston-area death row prisoner convicted of killing 2 men in a drug deal
gone bad lost out Monday in a federal appeals court, a ruling that could move
him 1 step closer to an execution date.
Attorneys for Paul Wayne Slater, a brain-damaged junior high dropout with a low
IQ, argued it was bad lawyering earlier in the case that helped earn him a
death sentence more than 2 decades ago for a shooting in the bay of a Houston
car wash.
"This case today, they would never seek the death penalty," said defense
attorney Randy Schaffer. "I think the death penalty was probably sought in this
case because it was a time when they were seeking the death penalty just for
sport."
In July 1995, Slater was scheduled to meet up with 3 men to sell them some
crack, according to court filings. Would-be buyers Eric Washington, Roddrick
Martin and Glenn Andrews showed up with $3,000 on hand for the exchange.
Then, 2 men pulled up in a Cadillac and there's some dispute as to what
happened next, but ultimately Slater fatally shot Martin and Andrews while
Washington fled the scene.
A month later, police tracked down the blood-soaked Cadillac. A few weeks after
that, Slater confessed - though he said the slayings were in self-defense,
according to court records.
"There are very few cases in which the state has sought the death penalty in a
drug transaction, where the victims were drug dealers," Schaffer said Monday.
Even so, Slater was sentenced to death in 1996, after his trial lawyer failed
to request a jury instruction on murder as a lesser-included offense - a move
that would have allowed for a self-defense claim.
In the years since his conviction, Slater has also lodged appeals blaming his
trial attorney for failing to bring up claims of brain damage and learning
disabilities. A 1991 evaluation placed his IQ at 77, though some tests have
scored him as low at 63, according to court filings.
"The law is a little schizophrenic on whether you can bring in new evidence at
this point in a case," Schaffer said. "It's really complicated stuff but long
story short 5th Circuit said, 'No, you can't and even if you could we don't
think it would have made a difference.'"
Now, Slater's defense team can file for a rehearing in the 5th Circuit, try
their luck in the Supreme or go back to state court, Schaffer said.
"And truly this is a case for a commutation for a life sentence," he added, "so
at the appropriate time we'll be asking to meet with District Attorney Kim
Ogg."
(source for both: Houston Chronicle)
NEW HAMPSHIRE:
Chuck Douglas: If we're serious about hate crimes, expand the death penalty
Today, the House Criminal Justice Committee is scheduled to hold a public
hearing on HCR 13 condemning hate crimes and racism.
Last November, the FBI released its annual report on hate crimes, which are
crimes motivated by anger or bias involving race, religion, or sexual
orientation. The 6,121 criminal incidents were a 5 % increase over 2016.
The Anti-Defamation League said that in addition to the victim of a hate crime
is the intimidation of the victim's community of Jews, blacks, etc.
The FBI reported 78 % of hate crimes were based on race or religion and 18 % on
sexual orientation.
In recent years, we have seen a rise in crimes motivated by hatred of a group's
race, religion, or sexual orientation. One of the worst was the 2015 wanton and
intentional murder of nine black worshippers at a famous church in Charleston,
S.C.
Luckily, the federal government has capital punishment for such hate crimes,
and Dylann Roof will rightly pay the ultimate price for his evil acts.
A year later, in 2016, 49 people were killed in an attack on a gay nightclub in
Orlando, Fla. In August of 2017, in this state, an 8-year-old biracial boy was
almost killed when some teenagers tried to lynch him in Claremont. Had they
succeeded, and if the perpetrators were of age, they should have had to face
society's ultimate price, the penalty of death.
Why should the Dylann Roofs of this world, who said, "I do not regret what I
did," be spared?
HCR 13 references the enhanced sentencing provisions for hate crimes already on
our books in New Hampshire under RSA 651:6, I (f), but it has no teeth.
It calls on law enforcement to bring perpetrators of hate crimes to justice,
but does'tt take the meaningful step of putting a red line in the sand when
those haters kill.
Why should the Hitlers and Roofs of this world be repudiated by a civilized
society and made to atone for their hate? Because it reflects our social
compact that protects minorities in a real way, and not just a "feel good"
resolution of words.
Our limited capital punishment statute only covers specific crimes like killing
a prison guard, cop, or judge while in the line of duty, or murder for hire.
But it needs hate crimes with death resulting to be added.
Our Constitution explicitly provides that someone may be deprived of life as
long as it is pursuant to due process of law. 17 years ago, the Legislature
passed a bill repealing the death penalty. Then-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, vetoed the
bill because it is hard to prove how many people are not killed by the
deterrent effect of the death penalty.
In other words, we cannot prove statistically that on a given day certain
prison guards were not killed because inmates did not want to lose their own
life. Nor do we know how many police officers were not murdered because
criminals decided at the last minute not to kill an officer because of the
ultimate penalty to be paid for doing so in this state.
The fact that certain people are not deterred, and do in fact kill someone
based on their race, does not prove the reverse; that is that no one will ever
hesitate and avoid killing if the penalty is on the books here for haters.
It is time to add hate crime murders to our death penalty statute rather than
just condemning such acts of evil with mere words alone.
(source: Chuck Douglas is a former New Hampshire Supreme Court Justice and
Congressman--0-0-unionleade.com)
LOUISIANA:
To Try to Save Client's Life, a Lawyer Ignored His Wishes. Can He Do That?
As a lawyer, Larry English told a jury that his client had murdered 3 people,
against the client's request. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear
arguments as to whether what he did was constitutional. Credit Sam Hodgson for
The New York Times
Larry English left the Louisiana courtroom knowing that he had tried his last
criminal case.
His attempt to save his client's life had failed. Over repeated objections from
his client, Robert McCoy, who insisted on his innocence, Mr. English had told
the jury that Mr. McCoy was "crazy" and had killed 3 people. The jury's verdict
was death.
"I walked out of that courtroom saying I could never put myself through that
again, emotionally," Mr. English said during a recent interview in his Harlem
office. "I went into a deep depression. My wife was urging me to see someone.
That had never happened before in my legal career."
On Wednesday, Mr. English will revisit that trial in Washington, where he will
watch lawyers argue McCoy v. Louisiana before the United States Supreme Court.
The question before the court, which will decide if Mr. McCoy should get a new
trial, is whether it is unconstitutional for a lawyer to concede a client's
guilt against the client???s wishes. "When you're in a courtroom fighting for
someone's life, you bring every skill and trick of the trade to save that
person's life," Mr. English said. "A death penalty case is not normal."
That much was clear from the start.
Mr. English was hired in 2010, after Mr. McCoy had fired his public defenders
and was seeking to represent himself. He had been charged with killing his
mother-in-law, Christine Colston Young; her husband, Willie Ray Young; and her
grandson Gregory Lee Colston, 17.
"Anybody representing themselves in a death penalty case is guaranteeing a
death sentence," Mr. English said. "I knew Robert and I knew his family, and he
needed my help."
About a month before the trial, Mr. English told Mr. McCoy that the case was
unwinnable because of the evidence the prosecution had against him, including
that when Mr. McCoy was discovered, the gun used in the killings was under a
seat of the vehicle he was traveling in.
Also, in a 911 recording, Ms. Colston Young could be heard telling "Robert"
that her daughter was with the police, before a gunshot rang out and the call
ended. A car registered to Mr. McCoy and his estranged wife was spotted leaving
the scene by the police, and the phone Ms. Colston Young had used to call the
police was found in the vehicle.
Mr. English urged Mr. McCoy to plead guilty in exchange for life in prison. Mr.
McCoy maintained his innocence, saying that he wanted to mount a defense that
he was out of town at the time of the murders and was framed by the police
because he knew they were running a drug trafficking ring. Mr. English said it
was Mr. McCoy's delusions of a grand conspiracy that made his client unable to
participate in his defense and that led him to believe he had no choice but to
try to save his client's life.
2 weeks before the trial, Mr. English told Mr. McCoy that he was going to admit
that Mr. McCoy was guilty because maintaining credibility with the jury was the
best chance to keep him alive.
Mr. McCoy furiously objected and tried to have Mr. English removed from the
case. Mr. McCoy's parents wrote to the judge also seeking Mr. English's
removal.
Bridgett Brown, 57, a lawyer in Alexandria, La., has been friends with Mr.
English for nearly 2 decades. She has had 3 capital punishment cases that ended
in plea deals and consulted with Mr. English almost daily before and during Mr.
McCoy's trial.
"Larry kept saying to me that he didn't want this boy to die on his watch," Ms.
Brown said. "He felt the jury had death in their eyes."
During opening statements, Mr. English followed through with his plan. "I'm
telling you, Mr. McCoy committed these crimes," Mr. English told the jury,
according to court records. Mr. McCoy immediately objected, saying, "Mr.
English is simply selling me out" and disregarding "all aspects" of his due
process.
Ms. Brown said that Mr. English "had a job nobody wanted."
"The only people who wanted Robert McCoy alive in that courtroom was his momma
and Larry," she added.
But Mr. English saw saving Mr. McCoy's life as part of a larger struggle
against injustice.
"The criminal justice system in this country is so racked by racism and
classism that there is no way the death penalty can be implemented in a way
that's constitutional," Mr. English said.
Mr. English, who is 62, grew up poor with 6 siblings on a sharecropper's farm
in rural Louisiana. He said he had "a better chance of being the starting point
guard for the New York Knickerbockers than graduating from Tulane Law School."
In Louisiana, he served as the president of an N.A.A.C.P. chapter and a local
school board.
He was moving to Harlem when he took Mr. McCoy's case, which he described as
the "closing of a chapter" on his life in Louisiana.
In Harlem, Mr. English, who no longer practices law, is the chairman of a firm
that deals in real estate infrastructure development. As the chairman of
Community Board 9 in Harlem, he fought for minority businesses to get more city
contracts. Yellowed articles on his office wall show him during a sit-in.
Mr. English displays a copy of a 2004 article that says he was able to get
quadruple homicide charges dropped against a 24-year-old Walmart clerk, even
though he had confessed.
"I'm confident I kept 5 innocent people from spending the rest of their lives
in jail," Mr. English said.
When he was asked to recall those cases, a sly smile spread over his face. He
said he loved the "gunslinger" aspect of being a criminal lawyer. But then
there was the dark, more depressing side of the job.
"Being a criminal lawyer in the American justice system is like doing triage
for black men," Mr. English said. "By the time they get to you, you're dealing
with the effects of absent fathers and poverty. They are 19 years old and about
to go to jail for 20 years. All these lives are coming in, and you are doing
everything you can to save them. It was my way of fighting the system."
Phillip Collier, 62, has been best friends with Mr. English since they were in
7th grade at Lanier Jr.-Sr. High School in Shreveport, La.
Mr. Collier remembered being the new student in school when a teacher
instructed Mr. English to escort him to his next class. To Mr. Collier's
surprise, Mr. English showed up at the end of that class and walked him to his
next class, and his next class, and the class after that, until the day had
ended.
"As a kid, Larry was looking out for his community, even though I was a total
stranger," Mr. Collier, a retired Ford Motor Company executive, said in a phone
interview from his home in El Dorado Hills, Calif.
The 2 enrolled in the Army together after graduating from high school to escape
what they were sure was a bleak future in Louisiana.
"I would have been surprised had he chose anything else other than criminal
law," Mr. Collier said. "Most of the people we knew, friends and families, had
experienced injustices with the legal system that he wanted to do something
about."
It is not unusual for lawyers to admit their client's guilt, especially in
death penalty cases. Usually, the strategy is carried out with the cooperation
of the accused. To go against a client's wishes, however, violates the role
lawyers are supposed to play in the legal system, said Lawrence J. Fox, a
lecturer at Yale Law School.
"This is one of the most difficult questions that we've identified in being a
lawyer," said Mr. Fox, who filed a brief with several colleagues from the
Ethics Bureau at Yale on Mr. McCoy's behalf. "You start with the fundamental
proposition that we are our client's servants."
As long as the client is not asking the lawyer to do anything illegal, and
unless the client has been declared incompetent, the lawyer has to take
instruction from the client regarding the admission of guilt, he added.
"It means some clients on death row may be committing suicide, but that's their
choice to make," Mr. Fox said.
The Louisiana Supreme Court has allowed lawyers to concede their client's guilt
over their client's objections at least 4 times since 2000, according to a
brief supporting Mr. McCoy filed by the Louisiana Association of Criminal
Defense Lawyers and the Promise of Justice Initiative.
"We are looking for guidance. This area of the law is ripe with ambiguity and
mistakes," Mr. Fox said.
Mr. McCoy has been fighting for a new trial since he was sentenced to death in
2012. He appealed to the Louisiana Supreme Court, saying that he was denied his
Sixth Amendment right to assistance of counsel, but the court ruled against
him.
Mr. English fell silent when asked if he regretted taking the case.
Then he said, "The greatest thing I ever did as a lawyer, and the most
important thing I ever did as a lawyer, was to take Robert McCoy's case."
(source: New York Times)
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