by Bob Walsh
Texas is, in many ways, a very nice place and is run reasonably well and efficiently. They do, however, have the lowest staff to prisoner ratio of any large state in the country and it does, from time to time, cause problems.
It seems that a complex plot was hatched at the Texas death row at the Huntsville prison. Condemned prisoners Anthony Shore and Larry Swearingen got together Shore was about to be executed. He was going to confess to Swearingen's murder of Melissa Trotter in 1998. Shore hade already admitted to four very nasty murders, including one nine-year old and there was no doubt he was going to be executed. The idea was for him to confess at the last minute to Swearingen's crime to get him off the hook. Shore's execution has been stayed by a judge for 90 days to give the correctional system time to work out what happened.
Swearingen managed to get physical possession of written material, including a hand-drawn map. That should not have been possible as inmates are supposed to have next to zero physical contact with one another on death row.
Speaking from experience I can testify that inmates can be very creative with "fish lines" for passing written material, drugs and other contraband from cell to cell, especially at night. Unless you have staff out on the tiers constantly looking for such things it is impossible to stop. Despite what the union claims I am unsure that additional staff, unless you are talking about a LOT of additional staff, would have prevented this little plot from developing.
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