Missouri’s Republican House Majority Leader Steven Tilley says Governor Jay Nixon should com­mute the death sen­tence of Dennis Skillicorn, who is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on May 21. Citing rev­e­la­tions that anoth­er sus­pect com­mit­ted the mur­der while Skillicorn was unaware of the mur­der plan, Tilley said, ​“Certainly, that would be enough rea­son­able doubt for me that I would be very con­cerned if this state exe­cut­ed that indi­vid­ual.” Tilley’s sug­ges­tion to the Governor was made dur­ing Missouri’s leg­isla­tive debate over a pro­posed two-year mora­to­ri­um on the death penal­ty. Republican Rep. Bill Deeken had pro­posed a two-year mora­to­ri­um on the death penal­ty. ​“I think it is wise for offi­cials to con­duct a study to see how many peo­ple have been wrong­ly con­vict­ed in Missouri and to help rebuild con­fi­dence in the accu­ra­cy of our sys­tem,” said Deeken. Tilley expressed sup­port for a study, say­ing, ​“I sup­port the com­mis­sion doin’ the study to prove that the death penal­ty is tak­en care of prop­er­ly in the state of Missouri.” 

The House even­tu­al­ly vot­ed 95 – 64 to elim­i­nate the death penal­ty mora­to­ri­um but keep a for­mal study of Missouri’s death penal­ty sys­tem. A 10-mem­ber com­mis­sion would study cap­i­tal cas­es, review pos­si­ble alter­na­tive pun­ish­ments and sug­gest law changes to ensure those sen­tenced to death are guilty and received ade­quate legal counsel.

(Kermit Miller, ​“House Majority Leader Urges No Execution on Convicted Killer,” KRCG: Connect-Mid-Missouri, May 14, 2009). See New Voices and Clemency, where you can lis­ten to DPIC’s new pod­cast on clemen­cy. There have been no exe­cu­tions in Missouri since 2005.

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