Texas death row plot triggers call for more prison guards

After a bizarre death row confession plot between 2 prisoners slated for execution, the correctional officers' union is calling for more staffing they say could have prevented the scheme that ultimately derailed the state's effort to put to death a Houston-area serial killer.

"This was definitely a security breakdown," said Lance Lowry, who heads the Texas Correctional Employees union based in Huntsville. "You're playing Russian roulette when you don't have enough security."

Texas prisons have more inmates per officer than other large states like New York and California, he said, adding that death row in particular needs "a lot more officers." But the Texas Department of Criminal Justice begged to differ.

"Death row is appropriately staffed and all critical positions are filled," spokesman Jason Clark said Friday. "Staffing played no role in this confession scheme between death row offenders."

The hand-wringing over staffing questions stems from an alleged plot hatched between condemned inmates Anthony Shore and Larry Swearingen, which came to light this week (Oct. 18) only hours before Shore was set to die by lethal injection.

A judge late Wednesday stayed Shore's execution for 90 days after prosecutors said the four-time killer had admitted to an abandoned plan to confess to Swearingen's crime, the 1998 killing in Montgomery County of college student Melissa Trotter.

Swearingen has long professed his innocence, though the Willis man is still slated for execution in November.

Shore, on the other hand, has consistently admitted to the 1992 killing of Maria del Carmen Estrada - for which he was convicted - as well as the gruesome strangulations of 14-year-old Laurie Tremblay, 9-year-old Diana Rebollar and 16-year-old Dana Sanchez.

But sometime in July, he allegedly agreed to take responsibility for Trotter's murder as well, even stashing material from the Montgomery County murder - including a hand-drawn map marking the supposed location of more evidence - in his death row cell at the Polunsky Unit near Livingston.

When prosecutors discovered the suspicious items in Shore's cell, it threatened to muddy the waters in the already troubled Swearingen case.

Then on Tuesday - about 24 hours before Shore's scheduled execution - Shore told investigators he'd only considered confessing to get his friend off, and not because he'd actually committed the crime. The multiple murderer also agreed to answer questions about other cases, and a judge greenlit pushing back his execution till January.

It's still not entirely clear how the two prisoners became friends, or how Shore managed to acquire materials relating to Swearingen's case. TDCJ officials declined to offer specifics citing an ongoing investigation, but were willing to speak in generalities.

It's not difficult for men to talk to each other on death row, even though they spend most of their day alone in a cell, according to Clark.

"It's something you really can't prevent," he said.

When prisoners are let out for recreation, they may be able to talk to other death row inmates in neighboring caged recreation areas. And even when they're in their cells, they're able to talk by shouting out the door slot, through the vents, or sometimes through toilets, Lowry said.

But passing letters, legal materials or other items is not allowed - and a little trickier to pull off.

Instead of old-fashioned cell bars, death row cells have a solid door, but the crack underneath offers a way to push out small notes or "kites." To reel in illicit missives from neighbors, prisoners will go "fishing" with hand-made contraptions fashioned from bedsheets, paper and other readily available materials. But sometimes, locked-in prisoners get help from inmate workers known as porters.

"Porters passing notes is something we've dealt with with all inmates," Clark said. "They have a lot of time on their hands so they try to come up with new and inventive ways to beat our security measures."

Clark declined to say whether Shore and Swearingen had been housed near each other leading up to the plot, though Lowry said death row inmates are moved to different cells on a weekly basis for security.

"We need a lot more officers on those cell blocks," the union chief said. "A lot of people think those inmates are locked in a cell so they can't do anything, but that's not always the case."

But even more officers probably wouldn't have been enough to stop the supposed friendship between Shore and Swearingen, Lowry admitted, though it may have prevented any potential transfer of case materials.

"With the current staffing levels and security levels, they can't stop it," he said. "I think people need to take a more ethical look at the amount of work these guys do - and they're incredibly understaffed."

Source: Houston Chronicle, October 22, 2017

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but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde