missouri death row | My Crime Library

David Hosier Execution Scheduled For Today

David Hosier was sentenced to death by the State of Missouri for a double murder that was committed in 2009. Now baring a last minute step in by the Missouri State Governor he will be put to death today, July 11 2024, by lethal injections

According to court documents David Hosier began dating Angela Gilpin in Jefferson City who was separated from her husband Rodney Gilpin. However when Hosier learned that Angela and Rodney were trying to rekindle their marriage he would react by going to her appointment and killing the pair

David Hosier would be arrested, convicted of both murders and sentenced to death

David Hosier Case

Death row inmate David Hosier is set to be executed in Missouri on Tuesday, which would make him the state’s second execution of the year and the nation’s seventh.

Hosier, 69, is set to be executed by lethal injection for 2009 murder of his former lover, Angela Gilpin, a mother of two sons who was working to repair her marriage and escape Hosier, according to court records.

Hosier has maintained his innocence since his conviction and recently told the Kansas City Star: “You cannot show remorse for something you did not do.”

Republican Missouri Gov. Michael Parson rejected Hosier’s last petition for clemency on Monday, saying that “he displays no remorse for his senseless violence.”

Here’s what you need to know.

Sometime between 2008 and 2009, Hosier got involved romantically with Angela Gilpin, who had separated from her husband. When Gilpin decided to end the affair and reconcile with her husband, Hosier got angry.

Two weeks before she was killed, Gilpin applied for a restraining order against Hosier and was looking to move apartments, writing to her landlord that she could no longer live next to Hosier.

“He scares me. I don’t know he will do next,” she wrote, according to court records.

The day before the killings, Hosier left a voicemail for a friend saying that he was going to “finish it” and called another friend to say that he was going to “eliminate his problems,” court records show.

The next morning, a neighbor found Gilpin’s and her husband Rodney’s bodies at the threshold of their Jefferson City apartment. They had been shot to death.

In Gilpin’s purse was an application for a protective order from Hosier that said “he knows everywhere I go, who I go with, who comes to my home,” adding that he was stalking and harassing her every day.

Hosier was arrested in Oklahoma later that day following a pursuit and a standoff, after which Hosier told police: “Shoot me and get it over with,” according to court documents.

Attorneys for Hosier have argued that the trial attorneys failed to call a medical professional to explain to jurors how a 2007 stroke had affected Hosier’s mental state. The attorneys have also argued that the judge that presided over the trial and sentencing had a conflict of interest, having prosecuted Hosier in 1998 for not paying child support.

The Missouri State Supreme Court rejected Hosier’s appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case in August 2023.

The Federal Public Defender’s office produced a video pleading for clemency for Hosier. In the video, multiple family members point to the death of Hosier’s father when he was 16 years old as the beginning of a downward spiral.

“He’s been angry with all the women in his life, including me and my mother and it was not like that for him before my dad died,” Hosier’s sister, Kay Schardien, says in the clemency video. “My dad’s death was just like a crater and David fell into that crater.”

In denying Hosier’s clemency petition on Monday, Parson said in a statement that Gilpin “had her life stolen by David Hosier because he could not accept it when she ended their romantic involvement.”

“For these heinous acts, Hosier earned maximum punishment under the law,” he said. “I cannot imagine the pain experienced by Angela’s and Rodney’s loved ones but hope that carrying out Hosier’s sentence according to the court’s order brings closure.”

Hosier is scheduled to be executed shortly after 6 p.m. CT on Tuesday, June 11. The window for the execution runs for 24 hours, according to the Missouri Department of Corrections.

The execution will be carried out at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, about an hour south of St. Louis

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/06/11/david-hosier-execution-missiouri-what-to-know/74039081007

David Hosier Execution

Missouri carried out its second execution this year on Tuesday after Gov. Mike Parson denied a request for clemency filed by inmate David Hosier.

Hosier was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m. local time at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, Missouri, a corrections spokesperson said in a statement.

Hosier, 69, has maintained his innocence in the double murder for which he was sentenced to death. He submitted a clemency petition in the wake of multiple prior appeals, including one that the Missouri Supreme Court rejected five years ago when it unanimously upheld the state’s decision to execute him. But the authority to commute Hosier’s sentence or halt his execution — or not — ultimately rests with the governor, and some lawmakers have in recent days called on Parson to spare his life.

Hosier was placed on Missouri’s death row in 2013 after being convicted of capital murder in the 2009 deaths of Angela Gilpin and Rodney Gilpin at their home in Jefferson City. The governor, who has overseen 10 executions since beginning his term in office, said Hosier killed the couple “in a jealous rage,” echoing the prosecution’s argument during his criminal trial.

Hosier was convicted of fatally shooting the Gilpins during an armed burglary, after previously having a romantic relationship with Angela Gilpin. She and her husband were murdered around one month after Angela Gilpin ended the affair with Hosier, according to court documents.

“Ms. Angela Gilpin had her life stolen by David Hosier because he could not accept it when she ended their romantic involvement. He displays no remorse for his senseless violence,” Parson said in a statement Monday, announcing that Hosier’s clemency petition was denied. “For these heinous acts, Hosier earned maximum punishment under the law. I cannot imagine the pain experienced by Angela’s and Rodney’s loved ones but hope that carrying out Hosier’s sentence according to the Court’s order brings closure.”

Hosier already had a criminal record and owned firearms when the Gilpins were killed, and in the aftermath of the murders, Angela Gilpin’s purse was found to contain an application for a protective order against him as well as a statement saying she feared Hosier may shoot her and Rodney, documents show.

Parson’s office said Tuesday that “Hosier, with a decades-long history of violence against women, would not let Angela reconcile with Rodney, stalking and harassing her for weeks before murdering her and her husband.”

Before the Gilpins’ case, Hosier was convicted and sentenced to prison for assaulting and seriously injuring another woman.

Hosier’s defense attorneys have over the years tried to appeal the death sentence on the grounds that no physical evidence linked Hosier to the murders. “No confession, no eyewitnesses, no fingerprints, and none of David’s DNA or other personal effects were found at the crime scene,” they wrote in his 2019 appeal. Attorneys also argued that Hosier’s prior conviction for assault should not have been admissible evidence in the Gilpin trial because it unfairly prejudiced the jury.

His recent clemency petition focused mainly on Hosier’s personal life. Much of the petition centered on a stroke Hosier suffered in 2007 that attorneys said left him with lasting brain damage, as well as the 1971 murder of his father, an Indiana State Police sergeant, which his defense characterized as a traumatic event that drove his mental health struggles in adulthood. Hosier went on to serve in the United States Navy and as an emergency medical technician and firefighter in Jefferson County. His health has declined in the last several months, with the petition citing heart issues that intensified in early May.

U.S. Reps. Cori Bush and Emmanuel Cleaver, both of Missouri, urged Parson to grant Hosier’s clemency petition in a letter to the governor last week. They referenced the inmate’s medical issues and mental illness and suggested that his former attorneys’ choice to omit “vital medical information” during the criminal trial could amount to “a potential violation of Mr. Hosier’s Sixth Amendment rights.”

“Mr. Hosier’s debilitating condition further emphasizes the need for clemency in this case. He does not pose a threat to those around him and deserves humane treatment as he suffers from heart failure,” Bush and Cleaver wrote in that letter.

Hosier told The Associated Press he was unhappy with his current defense team’s approach to the clemency request, which he thought should have focused more on the lack of forensic evidence tying him to the Gilpins’ deaths and less on his childhood.

“They did exactly the opposite of what I wanted them to do,” Hosier said of the clemency petition, according to the AP. “I told them I didn’t want the ‘boo-hoo, woe is me.’ All that stuff happened 53 years ago, OK? It has nothing to do with why I’m sitting here right now.”

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/david-hosier-missouri-execution-2009-murders-death-row-governor-denies-clemency

Brian Dorsey Execution Scheduled For Apr 9/24

Brian Dorsey is scheduled to be executed by the State of Missouri for the murder of his cousin and her husband

According to court documents Brian Dorsey would call his cousin Sarah Bonnie and told her that drug dealers were at his door demanding that he paid him. Dorsey told her he was scared they would break into the home and hurt him

Brian Dorsey would go to the home of Sarah Bonnie an her husband Ben Bonnie. Soon after arriving at the Bonnie home Dorsey would shoot and kill both Sarah and Ben. The couples young child was present at the time of the shooting but was not harmed

Brian Dorsey would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Brian Dorsey and his lawyers were attempting to get his execution postponed by claiming his original attorneys at the double murder trial were not paid enough so they did not put forth any effort

Update – Brian Dorsey was executed by lethal injection

Brian Dorsey News

A man convicted of murdering his cousin and her husband after they brought him to safety when he told them that drug dealers were at his door will be executed Tuesday, Missouri’s governor said.

Brian Dorsey, 51, requested clemency, but Gov. Mike Parson affirmed the state Supreme Court-ordered sanction Monday, with his office saying in a statement that it is “an appropriate and legal sentence for his heinous crimes.”

On Dec. 23, 2006, Brian Dorsey grabbed his cousin’s shotgun and fatally shot her and her husband in their Callaway County residence. Sarah Bonnie and Ben Bonnie drove him to the home for the night after he asked for her help, saying drug dealers were at his door demanding he cover debts, according to the case record.

The couple’s 4-year-old daughter was in the home, but she was not physically harmed, the record states.

“Brian Dorsey punished his loving family for helping him in a time of need,” Parson said in the statement Monday.

He continued: “The pain Dorsey brought to others can never be rectified, but carrying out Dorsey’s sentence according to Missouri law and the Court’s order will deliver justice and provide closure.”

Dorsey pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, and a jury took up the matter of sentencing in 2008.

He later argued that the state’s flat fee payment to his otherwise private lawyers resulted in an insufficient defense. His defense also included the assertion that he was experiencing drug-induced psychosis the night of the slayings.

A clinical psychologist for the defense recited a history for Dorsey that included mental health issues, suicide attempts and drug addiction, according to the Missouri Supreme Court’s affirmation of his sentence in March.

But that jury weighing his fate found seven aggravating factors that led it to endorse execution for Dorsey, according to the Supreme Court.

Dorsey challenged his government-ordered fate multiple times, including by filing two writ of habeas corpus challenges with the Missouri Supreme Court, which has denied all his appeals. He also mounted challenges in federal court, but the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear them.

In December, the state Supreme Court set an execution date of April 9. The state is expected to use lethal injection.

Dorsey’s plight found unusual support in January, when dozens of Missouri Corrections Department employees urged Parson to grant clemency to Dorsey, who has behind bars for 17 years.

Troy Steele, the former warden at Potosi Correctional Center, where Dorsey has been housed, described him in a review as a “model inmate” and said he was allowed to work as a barber — even cutting the warden’s own hair.

The officers were joined by some family members, including cousin Jenni Gerhauser, in opposing his execution.

“Generally, we believe in the use of capital punishment,” corrections officers said in a letter to the governor. “But we are in agreement that the death penalty is not the appropriate punishment for Brian Dorsey.”

The Missouri Corrections Officers Association and the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Execution is scheduled for 6 p.m. local time Tuesday, according to NBC affiliate KOMU of Columbia.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/missouri-execute-man-murdered-cousin-husband-governor-says-rcna146938

Brian Dorsey Execution

Missouri death row inmate Brian Dorsey was executed on Tuesday evening after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene, officials confirmed.

Dorsey was convicted of murdering his cousin and her husband nearly 20 years ago.

The state carried out Dorsey’s death sentence by lethal injection at Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, Missouri’s Department of Corrections said in a statement. He was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m. local time.

The execution proceeded on Tuesday evening after the high court rejected two separate bids to intervene. There were no noted dissents. Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, confirmed Monday that the state would move forward with Dorsey’s death sentence, rejecting a separate request for clemency.

More than 70 current and former corrections officers had urged Parson to commute Dorsey’s sentence, arguing he had been rehabilitated, and his lawyers said that Dorsey was in a drug-induced psychosis when he committed the killings in 2006.

Dorsey, 52, was the first inmate in Missouri to be executed this year after four were put to death in 2023.

Kirk Henderson, Dorsey’s attorney, criticized the state for moving forward with the execution.

“If anyone deserves mercy, surely it is Brian, who has been fully rehabilitated and whose death sentence was so flawed that five of his jurors believe he should not be executed,” Henderson said in a statement. “Executing Brian Dorsey is a pointless cruelty, an exercise of the state’s power that serves no legitimate penological purpose.”

Dorsey pleaded guilty to shooting and killing his cousin, Sarah Bonnie, and her husband, Ben Bonnie, at their home on Dec. 23, 2006. According to court filings, Dorsey had called his cousin for money to give to two drug dealers who were at his apartment, and the three returned to the Bonnies’ home later that night after they agreed to help him.

After Sarah and Ben Bonnie, and their daughter, went to bed, Dorsey grabbed a shotgun and shot the couple, after which prosecutors accused Dorsey of sexually assaulting his cousin. He then stole several items from the Bonnies’ home, including jewelry and their car, and attempted to sell them to repay his drug debt, state officials said.

The bodies were discovered after Sarah Bonnie’s parents went to the home after the couple was missing from a family gathering on Christmas Eve. When they went into the house, they found the couple’s 4-year-old daughter sitting on the couch, who told her grandparents her mother wouldn’t wake up.

Dorsey turned himself in to the police three days after the killings and confessed to the murders. He was then sentenced to death.

After failed appeals of his death sentence, the Missouri Supreme Court issued an execution warrant in December. Dorsey sought further relief, arguing his conviction and sentence violated the Sixth Amendment, though his efforts were unsuccessful.

In one request for the Supreme Court’s intervention, Dorsey’s attorneys argued that the lawyers appointed by the Missouri Public Defender Office to represent him were paid a flat fee of $12,000 apiece, which presented a conflict of interest that pitted their personal finance interests directly against Dorsey’s right to effective assistance of counsel.

Dorsey’s current attorneys told the Supreme Court in a filing that his appointed lawyers provided “grossly deficient representation” in a capital case and pressured their client to plead guilty with no agreement that prosecutors wouldn’t pursue the death penalty.

They argued in a second request that Dorsey has achieved “remarkable redemption and rehabilitation” in his more than 17 years on death row, and the “goals of capital punishment will not be furthered by” his execution.

Dorsey’s attorneys also raised concerns about Missouri’s execution protocol, which says nothing about the use of any pain relief. They describe their client in court filings as obese, diabetic and a former user of intravenous drugs, all of which could make it difficult to establish IV lines for the lethal injection and may lead Missouri Department of Corrections employees to use “cut downs.”

Under the procedure, large incisions are made in the arms, legs or other areas of the body, and tissue is pulled away from the vein. A federal lawsuit filed on Dorsey’s behalf in Missouri district court alleged that no anesthetic is given during “cut downs,” and the procedure occurs before an inmate meets with their spiritual adviser for the last time, which Dorsey plans to do.

His attorneys argued that the “significant pain and anguish” Dorsey would be in when he meets his spiritual adviser would hinder his ability to freely exercise his religion.

A settlement was reached Saturday, under which the state would take steps to limit the risk of extreme pain for Dorsey, according to the Associated Press.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/brian-dorsey-execution-supreme-court

Johnny Johnson Executed In Missouri

Johnny Johnson was executed by the State of Missouri for the murder of six year old Casey Williamson

According to court documents Johnny Johnson would lure six year old Casey Williamson from her home and brought her to an abandoned building. When Johnson attempted to sexually assault the child she would scream and Johnson would beat her to death with a brick

Johnny Johnson would be arrested, convicted, sentenced to death and executed by lethal injection on August 1 2003

Johnny Johnson lawyers attempted to get his execution stopped due to him being diagnosed with schizophrenia

Johnny Johnson Case

A man who abducted a 6-year-old Missouri girl and beat her to death at an abandoned factory two decades ago was put to death Tuesday evening, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a request to block the execution over arguments he was mentally incompetent.

Johnny Johnson, 45, received a lethal injection dose of pentobarbital at a state prison in Bonne Terre and was pronounced dead at 6:33 p.m. CDT, authorities said. He was convicted of the July 2002 killing of Casey Williamson in the St. Louis area suburb of Valley Park.

Johnny Johnson, who had schizophrenia, expressed remorse in a brief handwritten statement released by the Department of Corrections hours before being executed

“God Bless. Sorry to the people and family I hurt,” Johnson’s statement said.

As he lay on his back with a sheet up to his neck, Johnny Johnson turned his head to the left, appearing to listen to his spiritual adviser shortly before the injection began. He then faced forward with his eyes closed, with no further physical reaction.

Among those witnessing Johnny Johnson’s execution were several members of the girl’s family and the former prosecutor and police investigator who handled his case.

The U.S. Supreme Court, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor and two other justices dissenting, rejected a late request to stay the execution

In recent appeals, Johnson’s attorneys have said the inmate has had delusions about the devil using his death to bring about the end of the world.

“The Court today paves the way to execute a man with documented mental illness before any court meaningfully investigates his competency to be executed,” Sotomayor and the other dissenting justices wrote in a statement when the stay was rejected. “There is no moral victory in executing someone who believes Satan is killing him to bring about the end of the world.”

Former St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch called the delusions “nonsense” and said Johnson inflicted “unspeakable horrors” upon Casey.

“He’s got some issues — significant issues,” McCulloch said moments before witnessing the execution. But “he knew exactly what he was doing.”

The girl’s disappearance from her hometown of Valley Park on July 26, 2002, had set off a frantic search before her body was found.

Casey’s mother had been best friends in childhood with Johnson’s older sister and even helped babysit him. After Johnny Johnson attended a barbecue the night before the killing, Casey’s family let him sleep on a couch in the home where they also were sleeping.

In the morning, Johnson lured the girl — still in her nightgown — to the abandoned glass factory, even carrying her on his shoulders on the walk to the dilapidated site, according to court documents. When he tried to sexually assault her, Casey screamed and tried to break free. He killed her with a brick and a large rock, then washed off in the nearby Meramec River. Johnson confessed that same day to the crimes, according to authorities.

“It was more violent and brutal than any case I’ve ever seen,” said former St. Louis County homicide investigator Paul Neske, who questioned Johnson at length the day of Casey’s murder and witnessed his execution.

After a search by first responders and volunteers, Casey’s body was found in a pit, buried under rocks and debris, less than a mile (kilometer) from her home.

At Johnson’s trial, defense lawyers presented testimony showing their client — an ex-convict who had been released from a state psychiatric facility six months before the crime — had stopped taking his schizophrenia medication and was acting strangely in the days before the slaying.

In June, the Missouri Supreme Court denied an appeal seeking to block the execution on arguments that Johnson’s schizophrenia prevented him from understanding the link between his crime and the punishment. A three-judge federal appeals court panel last week temporary halted execution plans, but the full 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated it. Johnson’s attorneys then filed appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court centered around his competency to be executed.

Gov. Mike Parson on Monday denied a request to reduce Johnson’s sentence to life in prison. The clemency petition by Johnson’s attorneys said Casey’s father, Ernie Williamson, opposed the death penalty.

But Casey’s great aunt, Della Steele, wrote an emotional plea to the governor urging the execution be carried out to “send the message that it is not okay to terrorize and murder a child.” Steele said grief from Casey’s death led to destructive effects among other family members.

“He did something horrible. He took a life away from a completely innocent child, and there have to be consequences for that,” Steele said recently, speaking with The Associated Press.

The family has organized community safety fairs in Casey’s memory, including a July 22 event that drew a couple hundred people. The family gave away dozens of child identification kits along with safety tips involving fire, water and bicycles, among other items.

The execution was the 16th in the U.S. this year, including three previously in Missouri, five in Texas, four in Florida, two in Oklahoma and one in Alabama.

“It’s been a difficult day, and a difficult 21 years,” Steele said in a statement after witnessing the execution. “We will continue to honor our sweet Casey’s memory by doing our best to make a difference in the lives of other children.”

https://apnews.com/article/missouri-execution-casey-williamson-johnny-johnson-b0d87ed6e459e49cb53f9b4fa5fcd738

Michael Tisius Execution Scheduled For Tonight

Michael Tisius is scheduled to be executed tonight by the State of Missouri for the murders of two prison guards

According to court documents Michael Tisius was just released from a jail from a minor charge when he took part in an escape attempt. Tisius would go back to the jail with one of the escapee’s girlfriends. When they arrived they managed to convince the two guards, Leon Egley and Jason Acton, they were dropping off cigarettes. Moments after the two guards would be shot and killed. The escape did not last long and soon all of the men were in custody

Michael Tisius would be convicted and sentenced to death. Now his execution is scheduled for tonight, June 6 2023

Michael Tisius was executed on June 6 2023

Michael Tisius News

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Monday declined clemency for a man who faces execution Tuesday evening for killing two jailers in an ill-fated effort to free someone else from a county jail.

Michael Tisius, 42, would be the third person in Missouri, and the 12th person nationally, to be executed in 2023. He’s accused of killing officers Leon Egley and Jason Acton in June 2000.

“It’s despicable that two dedicated public servants were murdered in a failed attempt to help another criminal evade the law,” Parson, a Republican, said in a statement. “The state of Missouri will carry out Mr. Tisius’s sentences according to the Court’s order and deliver justice.”

Michael Tisius has at least one pending court appeal. His appeals and his clemency request have focused on several issues. Among them: Tisius was just 19 at the time of the killings; he had been neglected as a child; and a juror at his 2010 resentencing may have been illiterate — in violation of Missouri law.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to halt the execution based on Tisius’ age when the crime occurred. A federal judge last week stayed the execution over the claim that a juror was illiterate, but an appeals panel reinstated it. The Supreme Court hasn’t yet ruled on that issue.

Elizabeth Unger Carlyle, an attorney for Michael Tisius, said the ups and downs of the appeals are taking a toll on him.

“I think he’s sort of, frankly, on an emotional roller coaster,” Carlyle said. “He’s pretty anxious. He doesn’t want to die. I think he’s angry and frightened.”

A 2005 Supreme Court ruling prohibits executions for those who were under 18 at the time of the crime. But Carlyle said “emerging science plus information about Mr. Tisius’ own brain dictates that they should now change that rule to apply to Mr. Tisius.”

A court filing from the Missouri attorney general’s office noted that both the original trial jury and the jury at resentencing considered Tisius’ age and mental health, “yet both juries still decided to impose the death penalty.” The Supreme Court turned aside the appeal without comment.

Advocates for Michael Tisius say he was largely neglected as a child and was homeless by his early teens. In 1999, as an 18-year-old, he was jailed on a misdemeanor charge for pawning a rented stereo system.

In June 2000, Michael Tisius was housed at the small Randolph County Jail in Huntsville with Roy Vance. Tisius was about to be released, and court records show the men discussed a plan in which Tisius would help Vance escape

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Monday declined clemency for a man who faces execution Tuesday evening for killing two jailers in an ill-fated effort to free someone else from a county jail.

Michael Tisius, 42, would be the third person in Missouri, and the 12th person nationally, to be executed in 2023. He’s accused of killing officers Leon Egley and Jason Acton in June 2000.

Elizabeth Unger Carlyle, an attorney for Michael Tisius, said the ups and downs of the appeals are taking a toll on him.

“I think he’s sort of, frankly, on an emotional roller coaster,” Carlyle said. “He’s pretty anxious. He doesn’t want to die. I think he’s angry and frightened.”

In June 2000, Tisius was housed at the small Randolph County Jail in Huntsville with Roy Vance. Tisius was about to be released, and court records show the men discussed a plan in which Tisius would help Vance escape.
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Just after midnight on June 22, Tisius went to the jail accompanied by Vance’s girlfriend, Tracie Bulington. They told Egley and Acton that they were delivering cigarettes to Vance. The jailers didn’t know that Tisius had a pistol.

At trial, Bulington testified that she looked up and saw Tisius with the gun drawn, then watched as he shot and killed Acton. When Egley approached, Tisius shot him, too. Both officers were unarmed.

Tisius found keys at the dispatch area and tried to open Vance’s cell, but couldn’t. When Egley grabbed Bulington’s leg, Tisius shot him several more times.

Tisius and Bulington fled but their car broke down in Kansas. They were arrested in Wathena, Kansas, about 130 miles (209 kilometers) west of Huntsville. Tisius confessed to the crimes.

Bulington and Vance are serving life sentences.

Defense attorneys have argued that the killings were not premeditated. Tisius, they said, intended to order the jailers into a holding cell and free Vance and other inmates. Tisius’ defense team issued a video last week in which Vance said he planned the escape attempt and manipulated Tisius into participating.

The people executed in Missouri this year included Amber McLaughlin, who killed a woman and dumped the body near the Mississippi River in St. Louis. The execution was believed to be the first of a transgender woman in the U.S.

Raheem Taylor, 58, was put to death in February for killing his live-in girlfriend and her three children in 2004 in St. Louis County.

Four of the U.S. executions this year have been in Texas, and three in Florida.

https://apnews.com/article/missouri-execution-michael-tisius-e4a26eebace4f63ac5da75b6e07a6a16

Michael Tisius Execution

A Missouri man who shot and killed two jailers nearly 23 years ago during a failed bid to help an acquaintance escape from a rural jail was executed Tuesday evening.

Michael Tisius, 42, received a lethal injection of pentobarbital at the state prison in Bonne Terre and was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m., authorities said. He was convicted of the June 22, 2000, killings of Leon Egley and Jason Acton at the small Randolph County Jail.

Tisius breathed hard a few times as the drug was administered, then fell silent. His spiritual adviser, Melissa Potts-Bowers, was in the room with him. Because the execution chamber is surrounded by soundproof glass, it’s not known what they were saying to each other.

In a final written statement, Tisius said he tried hard “to become a better man,” and he expressed remorse for his crimes.

“I am sorry,” he wrote. “And not because I am at the end. But because I truly am sorry.

Tisius’ lawyers had urged the U.S. Supreme Court to block the execution, alleging in appeals that a juror at a sentencing hearing was illiterate, in violation of Missouri law. The court rejected that motion Tuesday afternoon.

The New York Times reports that some of the jurors who decided Tisius should get the death penalty had said prior to his execution they would have backed or wouldn’t have objected if Missouri Gov. Mike Parson commuted the sentence to life in prison.

But Parson, a Republican, refused to on Monday, saying in a statement, “It’s despicable that two dedicated public servants were murdered in a failed attempt to help another criminal evade the law. The state of Missouri will carry out Mr. Tisius’s sentences according to the Court’s order and deliver justice.”

The Supreme Court has already turned aside another argument — that Tisius should be spared because he was just 19 at the time of the killings. A 2005 Supreme Court ruling bars executions of those under 18 when their crime occurred, but attorneys for Tisius argued that even at 19 when the killings occurred, Tisius should have his sentence commuted to life in prison without parole.

Advocates for Tisius also have said he was largely neglected as a child and was homeless by his early teens. In 1999, as an 18-year-old, he was jailed on a misdemeanor charge for pawning a rented stereo system.

In June 2000, Tisius was housed on a misdemeanor charge at the same county jail in Huntsville with inmate Roy Vance. Tisius was about to be released, and court records show the men discussed a plan in which Tisius, once he was out, would help Vance escape.

Just after midnight on June 22, 2000, Tisius went to the jail accompanied by Vance’s girlfriend, Tracie Bulington. They told Egley and Acton that they were there to deliver cigarettes to Vance. The jailers didn’t know that Tisius had a pistol.

At trial, Bulington testified that she looked up and saw Tisius with the gun drawn, then watched as he shot and killed Acton. When Egley approached, Tisius shot him, too. Both officers were unarmed.

Michael Tisius found keys at the dispatch area and tried to open Vance’s cell, but couldn’t. When Egley grabbed Bulington’s leg, Tisius shot him several more times.

Michael Tisius and Bulington fled but their car broke down later that day in Kansas. They were arrested in Wathena, Kansas, about 130 miles west of Huntsville. Tisius confessed to the crimes.

Bulington and Vance are serving life sentences on murder convictions.

Defense attorneys have argued that the killings were not premeditated. Michael Tisius, they said, intended to order the jailers into a holding cell and free Vance and other inmates. Tisius’ defense team issued a video last week in which Vance said he planned the escape attempt and manipulated Tisius into participating.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/michael-tisius-missouri-man-execution-murder-2-unarmed-jail-guards-juror-regrets/

Leonard Taylor Execution Scheduled For Tonight

The State of Missouri is getting ready to execute Leonard Taylor tonight , February 7 2023. According to court documents Leonard Taylor was responsible for the murders of his live in girlfriend Angela Rowe and her three children. After the four murders Leonard Taylor would flee to California where he was later arrested. Leonard Taylor would be convicted and sentenced to death for the murders. However Leonard Taylor has always insisted on his innocence and has claimed that he was already in California visiting his daughter when the four murders took place. According to Missouri law the State has a 24 hour period to execute Leonard Taylor starting at 6pm tonight.

Leonard Taylor was executed on February 7 2023 by lethal injection

Leonard Taylor Execution More News

Gov. Mike Parson confirmed the state will carry out the execution of 58-year-old Leonard Taylor on Tuesday.

A letter from NAACP President Derrick Johnson sent to the governor questioned the evidence used to convict Taylor and asked Parson to spare his life.

“The state of Missouri has the life of a man on its hands,” Johnson said. “On behalf of the NAACP, I am asking you to stop the execution of Mr. Taylor.”

Taylor was sentenced to death by lethal injection after being found guilty in a 2004 quadruple homicide in St. Louis. According to prosecutors, Taylor fatally shot his girlfriend Angela Rowe and her three children. He then fled to California.

Taylor insists he was in California to visit a daughter at the time of the murders and has maintained his innocence throughout his 15-year incarceration.

Parson responded with a press release affirming that Taylor will be executed.

The governor said Taylor’s conviction to death has been upheld by several different courts. The statement shares that Parson acknowledges Taylors claim to innocence, but fails to overshadow the “gruesome facts” of the homicides. He states Taylor’s sentence is about justice.

“The State of Missouri will carry out Taylor’s sentences according to the Court’s order and deliver justice for the four innocent lives he stole,” Parson said.

If Parson stays true to his statements, Taylor would be the third execution by the state of Missouri in the past three months.

Missouri currently ranks fifth in number of executions by a state since 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

There are currently more than 30 religious and civil rights groups also against the execution of Taylor. They wrote to prosecuting attorney Wesley Bell requesting him to reconsider his decision to ask a state judge for another hearing. They say Bell has “a clear opportunity to free an innocent Black man”.

Bell made the decision on Jan. 30 that “the facts are not there to support a credible case of innocence.”

Taylor is set be executed via lethal injection within a 24-hour period beginning at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

https://www.komu.com/news/state/missouri-set-to-execute-leonard-taylor-despite-pushback/article_ef77d90a-a6d3-11ed-ba4d-a37f76ae735b.html

Leonard Taylor Execution

Leonard “Raheem” Taylor, who was convicted in a 2004 quadruple murder but maintained his innocence, died by lethal injection Tuesday night at a prison in eastern Missouri. Taylor, 58, was executed at the state prison in Bonne Terre. Karen Pojmann, of the Missouri Department of Corrections, said the lethal drug pentobarbital was administered to Taylor at 6:07 p.m. He was pronounced dead roughly nine minutes later at 6:16 p.m

In his final written statement, Leonard Taylor said Muslims don’t die but live on “eternally in the hearts” of family and friends. “Death is not your enemy, it is your destiny,” he wrote in part of the statement. “Look forward to meeting it. Peace!”

Leonard Taylor has long maintained that he was in California when his girlfriend, Angela Rowe, and her three children — Alexus Conley, 10, AcQreya Conley, 6, and Tyrese Conley, 5 — were killed. All were found dead in their suburban St. Louis home on Dec. 3, 2004. Initially, investigators said the victims had been killed no more than a few days before they were discovered. But at trial, St. Louis County medical examiner Phillip Burch changed the estimated time of death to a two or three-week window based in part on the cool temperature in the house. Lawyers for Taylor have argued that there is evidence Rowe and her children were still alive at the time Taylor was in California. A forensic pathologist hired by the defense also issued a finding on Jan. 25 challenging the conclusions on their time of death.

Among those who witnessed Taylor’s execution on Tuesday were nine of the victims’ family members. Gerjuan Rowe, older sister to Angela Rowe, said she believed “justice was served” by the state. In a statement, the Midwest Innocence Project said Leonard Taylor was unjustly “killed by the very system that should have protected him.” “Since the moment of his arrest, Mr. Taylor proclaimed his innocence, loudly and for all who would hear. Yet no one — not the police, not the prosecutor, not the attorneys charged with defending him — seriously investigated that claim of innocence,” the group wrote.

In recent weeks, attorneys for Leonard Taylor highlighted new information in an effort to halt his execution. Groups such as the Innocence Project and Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty also threw their support behind Taylor. Gov. Mike Parson denied his clemency request on Monday, saying Taylor “brutally murdered” the victims.

“The evidence shows Leonard Taylor committed these atrocities and a jury found him guilty,” Parson said. “Despite his self-serving claim of innocence, the facts of his guilt in this gruesome quadruple homicide remain.” In the days leading up to the execution, two petitions before the Missouri Supreme Court were denied. The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday. In a docket entry, the high court rejected a stay of execution. Taylor’s lawyers also asked the Missouri Supreme Court to direct a prison warden to let his spiritual advisor be with him in the execution chamber.

Megan Crane, co-director of the MacArthur Justice Center’s Missouri office in St. Louis, said Taylor was “wrongfully executed” despite a “credible claim of innocence” that was not heard or evaluated by any court of law. She also noted the state carried out the death sentence as there was an open legal claim that his religious rights were violated by the state. “This is an undeniable and irreversible injustice,” Crane said. “But, in the words of Raheem, he will ‘live eternally in the hearts of family and friends.’” Protesters gathered across the state to express opposition to capital punishment. Demonstrations were organized in St. Louis, Columbia, Kansas City, Jefferson City, Columbia and Bonne Terre.

“I’m a Christian by faith, and I just don’t think that killing is the right thing,” said Jared Sloan, 67, an Independence minister, who carried a sign on Tuesday that read: “Thou shalt not kill.” “It’s immoral for the state of Missouri to take on itself the right to execute and kill people.” Susie Roling, a social worker and director of operations at Journey to New Life, a prison re-entry program based in Kansas City, said there is no evidence that demonstrates the death penalty is a deterrent against crime. “The worst of the worst in our country are not put to death,” Roling said. “It’s oftentimes the poorest of the poor.” Furonda Brasfield, an Arkansas attorney and director of leadership with the Eighth Amendment Project, which seeks to end the death penalty, said Taylor’s case represents “a travesty of justice.” She pointed to the case of Ladell Lee, an Arkansas man executed in 2017, among the cases where states have pressed on with carrying out a death sentence despite standing claims of innocence. “These types of things happen all the time. And these states have got to slow down. They have to be less bloodthirsty and just stop and fully explore these claims of innocence,” Brasfield said. In the past 10 weeks, Missouri has executed three people. Amber McLaughlin died Jan. 3, and Kevin Johnson died Nov. 29. All three were convicted in St. Louis County, which has the sixth highest number of executions in the U.S., at 20. It trails four counties in Texas and one in Oklahoma, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C. Parson has now denied clemency to two people who claimed they were innocent and consequently that they were wrongly sentenced to die. The first was Walter Barton, who was tried five times for the killing of a woman in Ozark. The Innocence Project, the Midwest Innocence Project and the MacArthur Justice Center urged Parson to appoint a board to investigate Barton’s innocence claims, which included dubious blood splatter evidence and an incentivized jailhouse informant. Barton was executed in May 2020.

https://www.kansascity.com/news/state/missouri/article272195683.html