HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- Texas carried out the nation's first execution of 2018 Thursday evening, giving a lethal injection to a man who became known as Houston's "Tourniquet Killer" because of his signature murder technique on four female victims.
Anthony Allen Shore was put to death for one of those slayings, the 1992 killing of a 21-year-old woman whose body was dumped in the drive-thru of a Houston Dairy Queen.
In his final statement, Shore, 55, was apologetic and his voice cracked with emotion.
"No amount of words or apology could ever undo what I've done," Shore said. "I wish I could undo the past, but it is what it is."
He was pronounced dead at 6:28 p.m.
Shore's lawyers argued in appeals that he suffered brain damage early in life that went undiscovered by his trial attorneys and affected Shore's decision to disregard their advice when he told his trial judge that he wanted the death penalty. A federal appeals court last year turned down his appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review his case and the six-member Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously rejected a clemency petition.
Shore's attorneys filed no last-minute attempts to halt his execution.
In 1998, Shore received eight years' probation and became a registered sex offender for sexually assaulting two relatives. Five years later, Shore was arrested for the 1992 slaying of Maria del Carmen Estrada after a tiny particle recovered from under her fingernail was matched to his DNA.
He also confessed at the time to killing three others, a 9-year-old and two teenagers. All four of his victims were Hispanic, and at least three had been raped. Jurors also heard from three women who testified that he raped them.
A Section on 01/19/2018