List of people executed in Missouri

A total of 68 individuals convicted of murder have been executed by the state of Missouri since 1976. All were by executed by lethal injection. All executions in Missouri were suspended between June 26, 2006, and June 4, 2007, due to a federal court ruling (see below). Executions resumed on May 20, 2009.

History

The first person executed in the modern era was George Mercer who was executed at the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City, Missouri on January 6, 1989. The next 61 executions starting with Gerald Smith were done at the Potosi Correctional Center in Potosi, Missouri. Since 2005, executions have been 25 miles east of Potosi at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, Missouri. The first execution at Bonne Terre was #63 Donald Jones. Missouri does not have a "Death Row".

Typically, the death warrant will be read to the inmate (handed down from the Missouri Supreme Court) 30 days prior to the date of execution. At this point, the inmate is either moved to protective custody or remains in solitary isolation. One week prior to the execution date, the inmate is moved to the medical confinement unit. This is to ensure that the inmate's interaction with other inmates and visitors is closely monitored. There is no contact allowed with the condemned inmate at this time. Three days prior, a medicinal regiment is started. Anxiolytics are started, and the inmate's religious instructor and legal services are the only ones allowed to see the inmate. For the last 24 hours, the inmate chooses his or her final meal. He or she is medicated for anxiety as needed. The viewing gallery is set up. One hour before the time, the inmate is offered last rites. Ten minutes before the time, the inmate is either wheeled into the chamber in a wheelchair, or he or she may walk. At this point, the doctors will place two central lines. Then, the three doctors will exit to a room behind the chamber. During this time, the witnesses have been led in, with the victim(s)'s witnesses entering from one side of the unit and the inmate's witnesses from the other side. When ready, the curtains will be opened. The inmate will be read the warrant again, and asked for any last statements. The warden is present and will give the order shortly after midnight. The three doctors will simultaneously push a button to start the machine to begin the process. After a doctor pronounces the inmate as expired, the curtains are closed. The witnesses are then escorted out of the facility, and the coroner retrieves the body, as the room is classified as a crime scene. The death certificate will read "cause of death: Homicide-legal:___________" (the space is for the warrant number). Once the body has left the facility, it will be announced over the radio that "the new inmate count is__, begin count." Each housing unit will conduct a count, and there will be no change, except that now the medical unit will report a count of zero inmates. The command will confirm the count, then order the Emergency Squad to stand down.

List

	Executed person	Date of execution	Victim(s)	Presiding governor
1	George Mercer	January 6, 1989	Karen Keeton	John Ashcroft
2	Gerald Smith	January 18, 1990	Karen Roberts	John Ashcroft
3	Winford L. Stokes, Jr.	May 17, 1990	Pamela Brenda	John Ashcroft
4	Leonard Marvin Laws	May 17, 1990	John Seward	John Ashcroft
5	George Clifton Gilmore	August 21, 1990	Mary Luella Watters	John Ashcroft
6	Maurice Oscar Byrd	August 23, 1991	Judy Cazaco, James Wood, Edna Ince, and Carolyn Turner	John Ashcroft
7	Ricky Lee Grubs	October 21, 1992	Jerry Thornton	John Ashcroft
8	Martsay Bolder	January 27, 1993	Theron King	Mel Carnahan
9	Walter Junior Blair	July 21, 1993	Kathy Jo Allen	Mel Carnahan
10	Frederick Lasley	July 28, 1993	Janie Tracy	Mel Carnahan
11	Frank Joseph Guinan	October 6, 1993	John McBroom	Mel Carnahan
12	Emmitt Foster	May 3, 1995	Travis Walker	Mel Carnahan
13	Larry Griffin	June 21, 1995	Quintin Moss	Mel Carnahan
14	Robert Anthony Murray	July 26, 1995	Jeffrey Jackson and Craig Stewart	Mel Carnahan
15	Robert T. Sidebottom	November 15, 1995	Mary Sidebottom.	Mel Carnaha
16	Anthony Joe Larette	November 29, 1995	Mary Fleming	Mel Carnahan
17	Robert Earl O'Neal	December 6, 1995	Arthur Dale.	Mel Carnahan
18	Jeffrey Paul Sloan	February 21, 1996	Jason Sloan	Mel Carnahan
19	Doyle James Williams	April 10, 1996	A. H. Domann	Mel Carnahan
20	Emmett Clifton Nave	July 31, 1996	Geneva Roling	Mel Carnahan
21	Thomas Henry Battle	August 7, 1996	Birdie Johnson	Mel Carnahan
22	Richard Oxford	August 21, 1996	Harold Wampler and Melba Wampler	Mel Carnahan
23	Richard Steven Zeitvogel	December 11, 1996	Gary Wayne Dew	Mel Carnahan
24	Eric Adam Schneider	January 29, 1997	Richard Schwendeman and Ronald Thompson	Mel Carnahan
25	Ralph Cecil Feltrop	August 6, 1997	Barbara Ann Roam	Mel Carnahan
26	Donald Edward Reese	August 13, 1997	James Watson, Christopher Griffith, John Buford, and Don Vanderlinden	Mel Carnahan
27	Andrew Wessel Six	August 20, 1997	Kathy Allen	Mel Carnahan
28	Samuel Lee McDonald, Jr.	September 24, 1997	Robert Jordan	Mel Carnahan
29	Alan Jeffrey Bannister	October 24, 1997	Darrell Ruestman	Mel Carnahan
30	Reginald Love Powell	February 25, 1998	Freddie Miller and Arthur Miller	Mel Carnahan
31	Milton Vincent Griffin-El	March 25, 1998	Jerome Redden	Mel Carnahan
32	Glennon Paul Sweet	April 22, 1998	Russell Harper	Mel Carnahan
33	Kelvin Shelby Malone	January 13, 1999	William Parr (he was also sentenced to death by the state of California)	Mel Carnahan
34	James Edward Rodden, Jr.	February 24, 1999	Terry Trunnel and Joseph Arnold	Mel Carnahan
35	Roy Michael Roberts	March 10, 1999	Correctional officer Tom Jackson	Mel Carnahan
36	Roy Ramsey, Jr.	April 14, 1999	Garnett Ledford and Betty Ledford	Mel Carnahan
37	Ralph E. Davis	April 28, 1999	Susan Davis	Mel Carnahan
38	Jessie Lee Wise	May 26, 1999	Geraldine McDonald	Mel Carnahan
39	Bruce Kilgore	June 16, 1999	Marilyn Wilkins	Mel Carnahan
40	Robert Allen Walls	June 30, 1999	Fred Harmon	Mel Carnahan
41	David R. Leisure	September 1, 1999	James A. Michaels, Sr	Mel Carnahan
42	James Henry Hampton	March 22, 2000	Frances Keaton	Mel Carnahan
43	Bart Leroy Hunter	June 28, 2000	Mildred Hodges and Richard Hodges	Mel Carnahan
44	Gary Lee Roll	August 30, 2000	Sherry Scheper, Randy Scheper and Curtis Scheper	Mel Carnahan
45	George Bernard Harris	September 13, 2000	Stanley Willoughby	Mel Carnahan
46	James Wilson Chambers	November 15, 2000	Jerry Lee Oestricker	Roger B. Wilson
47	Stanley Dewaine Lingar	February 7, 2001	Thomas Scott Allen	Bob Holden
48	Tomas Grant Ervin	March 28, 2001	Mildred Hodges and Richard Hodges	Bob Holden
49	Mose Young, Jr.	April 25, 2001	Kent Bicknese, James Schneider and Sol Marks	Bob Holden
50	Samuel D. Smith	May 23, 2001	Marlin May	Bob Holden
51	Jerome Mallett	July 11, 2001	Missouri State Trooper James F. Froemsdorf	Bob Holden
52	Michael S. Roberts	October 3, 2001	Mary L. Taylor	Bob Holden
53	Stephen K. Johns	October 24, 2001	Donald Voepel	Bob Holden
54	James R. Johnson	January 9, 2002	Deputy Sheriff Leslie B. Roark, Pam Jones, Sheriff Charles Smith, and Deputy Sheriff Sandra Wilson	Bob Holden
55	Michael I. Owsley	February 6, 2002	Elvin Iverson	Bob Holden
56	Jeffrey Lane Tokar	March 6, 2002	Johnny Douglass	Bob Holden
57	Paul W. Kreutzer	April 10, 2002	Louise Hemphill	Bob Holden
58	Daniel Anthony Basile	August 14, 2002	Elizabeth DeCaro	Bob Holden
59	William Robert Jones, Jr.	November 20, 2002	Stanley Albert	Bob Holden
60	Kenneth Kenley	February 5, 2003	Ronald Felts	Bob Holden
61	John Clayton Smith	October 29, 2003	Brandie Kearnes and Wayne Hoewing	Bob Holden
62	Stanley L. Hall	March 16, 2005	Barbara Jo Wood	Matt Blunt
63	Donald Jones	April 27, 2005	Dorothy Knuckles	Matt Blunt
64	Vernon Brown	May 17, 2005	Janet Perkins (he was also under sentence of death in the murder of Synetta Ford)	Matt Blunt
65	Timothy Johnston	August 31, 2005	Nancy Johnston	Matt Blunt
66	Marlin Gray	October 26, 2005	Julie Kerry and Robin Kerry	Matt Blunt
67	Dennis Skillicorn	May 20, 2009	Richard Drummond	Jay Nixon
68	Martin Link	February 9, 2011	Elissa Self	Jay Nixon

Temporary suspension

On June 26, 2006, U.S. District Judge Fernando J. Gaitan, Jr. of the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri in Kansas City suspended Missouri's death penalty after lengthy hearings on the matter. Judge Gaitan reasoned that the state's lethal injection protocol did not satisfy the Eighth Amendment because (1) the written procedures for implementing lethal injections were too vague, and (2) the state had no qualified anesthesiologist to perform lethal injections. Jay Nixon, the Missouri Attorney General, promptly appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in St. Louis.

The Eighth Circuit held oral argument in the case on January 10, 2007, and a decision was released on June 4, 2007. The case is number 06-3651, Taylor v. Crawford. The Court reversed the decision of the district court and vacated the injunction, allowing for the death penalty to resume. The court found:

• 1. Risk of accident in carrying out of execution protocol does not form basis for claim of cruel and unusual punishment in violation of Eighth Amendment; rather, inquiry on challenge to execution protocol is whether it inherently imposes constitutionally significant risk of pain.
• 2. State's lethal injection protocol, utilizing sodium pentothal (thiopental), pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride, did not involve substantial foreseeable risk of wanton infliction of pain, and thus did not have to mandate participation of anesthesiologist or additional monitoring equipment in order to comport with Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment; written protocol called for ample quantity of thiopental to cause unconsciousness, and mandated medical supervision by physician, emergency medical technician or nurse, including examination to confirm unconsciousness prior to third injection.

The first execution since Gaitan's ruling was on May 20, 2009. This suspension was partly due to a national de facto moratorium while the Supreme Court of the United States decided Baze v. Rees. The court set the first Missouri post-Baze execution date in June 2008. For various reasons no executions were conducted until May 20, 2009

See also

• Capital punishment in the United States

External links

• Capital Punishment in Missouri (Missourinet)