Missouri Clemency Petition Highlights Prisoner’s Extraordinary Artwork

UPDATE 2: On June 2, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit lift­ed the stay that had been imposed by the U.S. District Court, say­ing that the low­er court did not have juris­dic­tion to order the stay.

UPDATE 1: On May 31, 2023, U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough issued a stay of exe­cu­tion, pend­ing an evi­den­tiary hear­ing on whether a juror was unqual­i­fied under Missouri law.

Michael Tisius is an artist. He is also a death row pris­on­er who is set to be exe­cut­ed by the state of Missouri on June 6, 2023. His unusu­al peti­tion for exec­u­tive clemen­cy promi­nent­ly fea­tures the art­work he cre­at­ed dur­ing his time on death row, some of which now dec­o­rates the prison where he is held. Mr. Tisius explains that “[i]n a world where I felt I had no con­trol, art has giv­en me that con­trol and has allowed me to con­nect to my emo­tions, as well as oth­er indi­vid­u­als,” and “[m]y hope is to erase some of the dark­ness of my past and to bring some beau­ty to this world, while I can.”

Mr. Tisius’s appli­ca­tion for clemen­cy includes a let­ter from the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, on behalf of Pope Francis, tes­ti­mo­ni­als from fel­low pris­on­ers about the pos­i­tive impact he has had on them while in prison, and a let­ter from the for­mer death row war­den stat­ing that although he had nev­er writ­ten such a com­ment before, he found Mr. Tisius to be a mod­el inmate and did not ​“fore­see this chang­ing if he was incar­cer­at­ed for the rest of his life.” The clemen­cy peti­tion also fea­tures affi­davits from jurors in his case stat­ing that they would recon­sid­er — or change — their ver­dicts of death, if they had learned more about Mr. Tisius’s abu­sive child­hood, men­tal ill­ness, and brain damage. 

On April 16, 2023, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) issued a res­o­lu­tion urg­ing ​“pre­cau­tion­ary mea­sures” for Mr. Tisius. The IACHR requests pre­cau­tion­ary mea­sures ​“to avoid irrepara­ble harm and pro­tect the exer­cise of human rights.” In Mr. Tisius’s case, the IACHR, which has non-bind­ing author­i­ty in the United States, request­ed as a pre­cau­tion­ary mea­sure that the state delay his exe­cu­tion until it has an oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­sid­er his peti­tion more ful­ly. Mr. Tisius’s legal team is also con­tin­u­ing to chal­lenge to his death sen­tence in pro­ceed­ings at the Missouri Supreme Court. 

If Mr. Tisius is exe­cut­ed on June 6, he will be the third per­son exe­cut­ed in Missouri in 2023, and either the twelfth or thir­teenth per­son exe­cut­ed nation­wide (James Barber of Alabama is sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on June 3, though the date may be sub­ject to change). Missouri also has a fourth exe­cu­tion sched­uled for August 1, Johnny Johnson. Missouri is one of only four states to car­ry out exe­cu­tions this year so far.