missouri execution | My Crime Library

Paul Goodwin Missouri Execution

Paul Goodwin was executed by the State of Missouri for the murder of a woman. According to court documents Paul Goodwin would beat to death the victim, Joan Crotts, after the woman was sexually assaulted. Paul Goodwin would be convicted and sentenced to death. Paul Goodwin would be executed by lethal injection on December 10 2014

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A Missouri inmate was put to death early Wednesday for fatally beating a 63-year-old woman with a hammer in 1998, the state’s record 10th lethal injection of 2014 to match Texas for the most executions in the country this year.

Paul Goodwin, 48, sexually assaulted Joan Crotts in St. Louis County, pushed her down a flight of stairs and beat her in the head with a hammer. Goodwin was a former neighbor who felt Crotts played a role in getting him kicked out of a boarding house.

Goodwin’s execution began at 1:17 a.m., more than an hour after it was scheduled, and he was pronounced dead at 1:25 a.m.

Efforts to spare Goodwin’s life centered on his low IQ and claims that executing him would violate a U.S. Supreme Court ruling prohibiting the death penalty for the mentally disabled. Attorney Jennifer Herndon said Goodwin had an IQ of 73, and some tests suggested it was even lower.

But Goodwin’s fate was sealed when Gov. Jay Nixon denied a clemency request and the U.S. Supreme Court turned down two appeals.

Texas, Missouri and Florida have combined for 28 of the 34 executions in the U.S. this year.

Crotts’ daughter, Debbie Decker, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Goodwin deserved no mercy.

“I’ve been sitting back waiting for this to happen,” Decker said of the execution.

https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/lethal-injection/missouri-sets-state-execution-record-after-putting-paul-goodwin-death-n265271

Leon Taylor Missouri Execution

Leon Taylor was executed by the State of Missouri for a robbery murder. According to court documents Leon Taylor would rob a convenience store and in the process shoot and kill the clerk. Leon Taylor would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Leon Taylor would be executed by lethal injection on November 19, 2014

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Missouri has carried out the execution of 56-year-old Leon Taylor, who was sentenced to death in 1999 for the murder in April 1994 of Robert Newton, the attendant at an Independence convenience store he had just robbed of $400.

He received a lethal dose of pentobarbital at 12:14 and appeared to stop breathing less than two minutes later, at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic & Correctional Center in Bonne Terre. His official time of death was 12:22.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday denied appeals for a stay of execution. Governor Jay Nixon then denied an appeal for clemency for Taylor.

Taylor is the ninth man Missouri has executed this year and the 11th since November, 2013. Only in 1999 has Missouri carried out that many executions in a year.

Prosecutors sought the death penalty against Taylor for several of what Missouri terms, “aggravating circumstances,” including that the murder was connected to a robbery, and because Taylor committed the murder while Newton was holding the hand of his then 8-year-old stepdaughter, Sarah Yates.

After fatally shooting Newton, Taylor pointed the gun at Yates and pulled the trigger but it jammed. He then locked her in the back room of the convenience store with the body of her stepfather. Taylor later told his half-brother and half-sister, who had been involved in the robbery with him, that he, “should have choked the bitch.”

Taylor was convicted of murder by one jury who was unable to agree on his punishment, so the judge imposed the death sentence. That sentence was reversed on appeal, but at the subsequent trial the jury found Taylor guilty and sentenced him to death. Yates testified against Taylor both times.

Taylor’s attorneys asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt his execution based on a 2002 federal court ruling that said judges could not impose a death sentence when jurors fail to agree on one. That ruling applied retroactively, and Taylor’s attorneys argued that his was the only case of someone for whom a judge had imposed a death sentence that was not later commuted to life, making his circumstance unusual.

His attorney also argued that the execution should not be carried out because the jury that sentenced him to death was all white. Six blacks were said to have been dismissed from serving as jurors by the prosecutor in the 1999 case, while the jury that was unable to agree on a death sentence had been racially mixed.

Taylor was scheduled to be executed in September but the Supreme Court lifted that execution warrant when his attorneys said they would be unable to work on his case at that time. Instead, Earl Ringo, Junior, was executed September 10 for 1998 the murders of a Columbia restaurant manager and a delivery driver.

https://www.missourinet.com/2014/11/19/missouri-executes-leon-taylor-for-1994-murder-in-independence/

Earl Ringo Missouri Execution

Earl Ringo was executed by the State of Missouri for a double murder committed during a robbery. According to court documents Earl Ringo would shoot and kill two people during a robbery at a restaurant in 1998. Earl Ringo would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Earl Ringo would be executed on September 10 2014

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A Missouri inmate was put to death early Wednesday for killing two people during a restaurant robbery in 1998, the eighth execution in the state this year and the 10th since November.

Earl Ringo Jr. and an accomplice killed delivery driver Dennis Poyser and manager trainee JoAnna Baysinger at a Ruby Tuesday in Columbia in the early hours of July 4, 1998. Poyser and Baysinger were shot to death at point-blank range.Ringo’s last words were a quote from the Quran that expresses belief and wishes for after death. He wiggled his feet as the process began, breathed deeply a few times, then closed his eyes, all in a matter of seconds. The Department of Corrections said Ringo was executed by lethal injection and pronounced dead at 12:31 a.m.

Courts and Gov. Jay Nixon had refused to halt the execution over concerns raised by Ringo’s attorneys, who, among other things, questioned Missouri’s use of a pre-execution sedative, midazolam. Attorneys argued that the drug could dull Ringo’s senses and leave him unable to express any pain or suffering during the process.

Ringo declined to take any sedative, including midazolam, the Corrections Department said.

Midazolam has come under scrutiny after it was used in problematic executions earlier this year in Ohio, Oklahoma and Arizona. In each case, witnesses said the inmates gasped after their executions began and continued to labor for air before being pronounced dead.

A clemency petition to Nixon had also cited concerns about the fact that Ringo was convicted and sentenced to death by an all-white jury.

On July 3, 1998, Earl Ringo shared with Quentin Jones his plan to rob the Ruby Tuesday where he once worked. Jones agreed to join him.

Before sunrise the next day, the two hid behind a grease pit in the back of the restaurant. Poyser and Baysinger arrived and entered the restaurant. Ringo followed them and shot Poyser, 45, killing him instantly.

He ordered Baysinger, 22, to open a safe. She pulled out $1,400 US and gave it to him.

Ringo gave the gun to Jones, who stood with the weapon pointed at Baysinger’s head for a minute and a half before pulling the trigger.

Interviews with restaurant workers and former workers led police to Ringo, according to Kevin Crane, who was the Boone County prosecutor at the time. Detectives found a blue ski mask, gun receipt, bulletproof vest and other evidence at the home of Ringo’s mother.

Earl Ringo admitted to the robbery but claimed the shootings were in self-defence. He was convicted in 1999 and sentenced to death.

Jama Brown, who was married to Poyser for 24 years, asked that people remember the victims.

“I can only tell you there is not a day that goes by that I don’t think of him or wonder what my life would be like today, not only for myself, but for my kids,” she said.

Jones, of Louisville, Kentucky, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison, but he was spared the death penalty when he agreed to testify against Earl Ringo.

Ringo’s lawyers had asked a federal appeals court to postpone the execution until a hearing over Missouri’s use of midazolam. Attorney Richard Sindel claimed that Missouri’s use of midazolam essentially violates its own protocol, which provides for pentobarbital as the lone execution drug.

St. Louis Public Radio reported last week that Missouri administered midazolam to all nine inmates put to death since November. Corrections department spokesman David Owen said midazolam “is used to relieve the offender’s level of anxiety” and is not part of the actual execution process.

The execution was one of two scheduled for Wednesday in the U.S.

Texas was scheduled to execute Willie Trottie later in the day for killing his common-law wife and her brother in 1993. Trottie’s execution would be Texas’ eighth this year.

Florida has performed seven executions in 2014, and all other states have a combined six.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/earl-ringo-jr-executed-in-missouri-after-losing-appeal-over-midazolam-1.2761552

Michael Worthington Missouri Execution

Michael Worthington was executed by the State of Missouri for the sexual assault and murder of a woman in 1995. According to court documents Michael Worthington would go over to the victims home where he would sexually assault and murder Melinda Griffin. Michael Worthington would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Michael Worthington would be executed by lethal injection on August 5, 2014

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A Missouri inmate was put to death early on Wednesday for raping and killing a neighbor in 1995 – the first lethal injection in the US since an Arizona execution went wrong in July.

The Missouri corrections department said Michael Worthington was pronounced dead shortly after midnight. He was the seventh Missouri inmate executed in 2014 and had been sentenced to death for the 1995 attack on Melinda “Mindy” Griffin during a burglary of her home.

The US supreme court and Missouri’s governor on Tuesday declined to block the execution. Worthington’s attorneys had cited the Arizona execution and two others that were botched in Ohio and Oklahoma, along with the secrecy surrounding the lethal injection drugs used in Missouri.

Worthington, 43, said in a telephone interview with the Associated Press that he had accepted his fate. “I figure I’ll wake up in a better place tomorrow,” Worthington said on Tuesday. “I’m just accepting of whatever’s going to happen because I have no choice. The courts don’t seem to care about what’s right or wrong any more.”

Three problematic executions in recent months have renewed the debate over lethal injection. In Arizona the inmate gasped more than 600 times and took nearly two hours to die. In April an Oklahoma inmate died of an apparent heart attack 43 minutes after his execution began. In January an Ohio inmate snorted and gasped for 26 minutes before being declared dead.

Most lethal injections take effect in a fraction of that time, often within 10 or 15 minutes.

Arizona, Oklahoma and Ohio all use midazolam, a drug more commonly given to help patients relax before surgery. In executions it is one of two or three drugs used in combination.

Texas and Missouri instead administer a single large dose of pentobarbital, often used to treat convulsions and seizures and to euthanize animals.

States have found it harder to obtain lethal injection drugs after European drug companies objected to the use of their products in executions. Missouri and Texas have turned to compounding pharmacies to make versions of pentobarbital. Like most states they refuse to name their drug suppliers, creating a shroud of secrecy that has prompted lawsuits.

On Tuesday Griffin’s 76-year-old parents anticipated witnessing Worthington die. “It’s been 19 years and I feel like there’s going to be a finality,” Griffin’s mother, Carol Angelbeck, told the Associated Press.

Worthington, when asked what he would say to Griffin’s parents, directed his comments to her mother. “If my life would bring her peace and bring Mindy back, I’d be fine with that. But it won’t,” he said. “It doesn’t bring peace or closure. She’s still going to have her broken heart.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/06/missouri-executes-michael-worthington

John Middleton Missouri Execution

John Middleton was executed by the State of Missouri for a triple murder in 1995. According to court documents John Middleton was a drug dealer and was concerned that people were talking to the police so he went over to the residence and would shoot and kill three people. John Middleton was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. John Middleton was executed by lethal injection on July 16, 2014

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Convicted killer John Middleton was executed by lethal injection at 6:58 p.m. Wednesday following the failure of various appeals on his behalf in the courts. He was pronounced dead at 7:06 p.m.

The U.S. Supreme Court had been asked to halt the execution Wednesday after a federal appeals court ruled the lethal injection could move forward.

Middleton was originally scheduled to die one minute after midnight Wednesday for killing three people in rural northern Missouri in 1995. But less than two hours earlier, a federal judge ruled there was enough evidence of mental illness that a new hearing should take place.

A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled at midday today that the execution could proceed, but Middleton’s attorneys appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and the Missouri Supreme Court.

Attorney General Chris Koster made the following statement after the execution:

“Twenty years ago, John Middleton murdered three people out of fear they would expose him as the drug dealer he was. He received the death penalty for each of his three murders. This evening, Mr. Middleton paid the ultimate price for his choices.”

Missouri law allows a 24-hour window for executions. That means if Middleton had not been executed by midnight, the Missouri Supreme Court would have needed to set a new execution date.

A flurry of appeals and court cases has sought to spare Middleton’s life. U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry first granted a stay early Tuesday, but that was overturned by the appeals court. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the ruling and declined to halt the execution on several other grounds, including the contention by Middleton’s attorneys that he was innocent of the crimes.

Middleton’s attorneys then went back to Perry, who again granted a stay late Tuesday night.

Middleton, 54, was the sixth man put to death in Missouri this year. Only Florida and Texas have performed more executions in 2014 with seven each.

Middleton was convicted of killing Randy “Happy” Hamilton, Stacey Hodge and Alfred Pinegar out of concern that they would tell police about his methamphetamine dealing. Middleton’s girlfriend, Maggie Hodges, is serving life in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in all three cases.

Middleton’s attorneys contend that the wrong man was arrested, citing new evidence that included a witness who came forward in February.

“We’re looking at a situation where if (Middleton) had zealous representation at trial he likely would have been acquitted,” attorney Joseph Perkovich said.

Attorney General Koster disagreed.

“The time for enforcement of Missouri’s criminal judgment against John Middleton is long overdue,” Koster wrote in a court response on Tuesday.

Middleton was a meth dealer in sparsely populated northern Missouri in the mid-1990s. After several drug suspects were arrested on June 10, 1995, he allegedly told a friend: “The snitches around here are going to start going down.”

A day later, according to court records, Middleton and his girlfriend met Hamilton and Hodge on a gravel road. Prosecutors said Middleton shot and killed them both and hid the bodies in the trunk of Hamilton’s car.

Pinegar, another meth dealer, was shot in the face on June 23, 1995. His body was found in a field near Bethany.

Middleton allegedly told acquaintances about his exploits. He was charged in all three killings and convicted in 1997.

But in February, a man whose name has not been disclosed because he fears retribution signed an affidavit saying that two rival meth dealers drove him to a rural area soon after Pinegar’s death and accused him of being a snitch. He said the men showed him Pinegar’s body and told him: “There’s already been three people killed. You want to be number four?”

The new witness said the dealers then beat him unconscious with a baseball bat and raped his girlfriend.

Harrison County Sheriff Josh Eckerson agreed to take a new look at the case, but said his investigation found no evidence to back up the new assertions. He is convinced that Middleton is the real killer

John Middleton left a final written statement: “You are killing an innocent man.”

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/convicted-killer-middleton-executed-in-missouri-after-appeals-fail/article_40668666-95a4-5987-a3f2-62600154528c.html