Houston Chronicle

Serial killer’s appeal denied

Man argues he had brain damage after confessing to four murders

- By Keri Blakinger

Houston serial killer Anthony Shore has lost a last-ditch appeal claiming unrecogniz­ed brain damage left him so impaired he was not morally culpable for his crimes, a ruling that clears the way for his execution scheduled for next week.

Shore, 55, the so-called “Tourniquet Killer,” was convicted of capital murder in 2004 after he confessed to brutally slaying four young women in the Houston area.

In his latest appeal, turned down by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday, Shore’s lawyers argued that the extent of his brain damage rendered the execution unconstitu­tional, likening it to executing an intellectu­ally disabled prisoner.

“Mr. Shore does not claim he is ineligible for the death penalty because he is unintellig­ent or uncharisma­tic,” his lawyers wrote earlier this month in a court filing.“Mr. Shore is ineligible for the death penalty because his brain injury decreases his moral culpabilit­y for his crimes, in the same way that a juvenile, despite intelligen­ce or charisma, is nonetheles­s ineligible for the death penalty.”

But the state’s highest criminal court didn’t agree with that argument.

“We find that applicant has failed to make a prima facie showing that a person with brain damage, like an intellectu­ally disabled person, should be categorica­lly exempt from execution,” the court wrote in its decision. “Accordingl­y, we dismiss this applicatio­n as an abuse of the writ without reviewing the merits of the claim raised.”

The failed appeal follows another courtroom disappoint­ment, when the U.S. Supreme Court denied

without comment his petition for writ of certiorari which, if granted, would have required a lower court to reconsider a request for appeal. Even before the court issued its decision, Shore’s attorney, K. Knox Nunnally, acknowledg­ed “the odds are not in our favor.”

Now, Shore’s hope rests on a clemency applicatio­n filed with the state’s Board of Pardons and Paroles.

Nunnally did not offer a comment about Tuesday’s decision.

Shore is currently the only Houston killer with a scheduled execution. He was convicted of one killing in 2004 although he confessed to three others.

His murderous rampage started in 1986, when he slaughtere­d 14-year-old Laurie Tremblay. Six years later, he raped and murdered 21-year-old Maria del Carmen Estrada. In 1994, he killed 9-year-old Diana Rebollar, a year before slaying 16-year-old Dana Sanchez.

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 the former telephone technician in for questionin­g, he calmly confessed to a string of rapes and murders in the Harris County area.

Currently, Shore is scheduled to be put to death at 6 p.m. Oct. 18 at the state prison in Huntsville.

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