Missouri

History of the Death Penalty

The death penal­ty was first used in Missouri in 1810 when Peter Johnson was hanged for mur­der. Missouri car­ried out a total of 285 exe­cu­tions from 1810 to 1965. Hanging was the pri­ma­ry method of exe­cu­tion until 1936, when lethal gas came into use from 1937 until 1987. Starting in 1987, lethal injec­tion was added as an option for inmates in addi­tion to lethal gas.

Timeline

1937 — Roscoe ​“Red” Jackson is exe­cut­ed by hang­ing in the last pub­lic exe­cu­tion in the United States.

1989 — In Wilkins v. Missouri, the U.S. Supreme Court finds that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment imposed on a per­son for a crime com­mit­ted at 16 or 17 does not con­sti­tute cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment under the 8^th amend­ment. This deci­sion was reached in con­sol­i­da­tion with the case of Stanford v. Kentucky.

2001 — Missouri is the 16^th state to ban the exe­cu­tion of pris­on­ers with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ties. This bill is not retroac­tive for those cur­rent­ly on death row.

2003 — Joseph Amrine is exon­er­at­ed after spend­ing 17 years on death row.

2005 — In Roper v. Simmons, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the exe­cu­tion of those under the age of 18 at the time of their crime is unconstitutional.

2007 — The Missouri leg­is­la­ture defeats a bill that would have made the death penal­ty a manda­to­ry sen­tence for those who mur­der law enforcement officers.

2011 — Governor Jay Nixon com­mutes the sen­tence of Richard Clay.

2012 — The Missouri Department of Corrections announces it is switch­ing from a three-drug lethal injec­tion pro­to­col to a sin­gle-drug method involv­ing Propofol. Missouri’s writ­ten pro­to­col does not require a physi­cian to be present on the execution team.

2012 — The United States’ main sup­pler of propo­fol announces it will not allow the drug to be sold for exe­cu­tions. Fresenius Kabi USA, a German-based com­pa­ny with offices in Illinois, will not accept orders for propo­fol from any depart­ments of jus­tice in the United States.

2014 — An inves­ti­ga­tion by St. Louis Public Radio and the St. Louis Beacon found that the source of Missouri’s lethal injec­tion drug, pen­to­bar­bi­tal, is a com­pound­ing phar­ma­cy in Oklahoma that is not licensed to sell drugs in Missouri.

2015 — Missouri car­ries out the exe­cu­tion of Cecil Clayton, a brain-dam­aged man with an IQ of 71, with­out a hear­ing to deter­mine his competency.

2016 — Cole County, Missouri Circuit Judge Jon Beetem rules that Missouri must release the names of phar­ma­cies that pro­vide drugs for lethal injection.

2018 — Missouri Judge Kelly Wayne Parker impos­es the death penal­ty on Marvin Rice, dis­re­gard­ing the near-unan­i­mous jury vote to spare his life. Four months lat­er, Missouri Judge Thomas Mountjoy sen­tences Craig Wood to death after a non-unan­i­mous jury vote.

2019 — In Bucklew v. Precythe, the U.S. Supreme Court holds that any chal­lenges to the state’s method of exe­cu­tion on the basis of exces­sive pain must include alter­na­tive meth­ods of exe­cu­tion that are less painful. The court affirm that the 8^th Amendment does not guar­an­tee a pain­less death and only pun­ish­ments that ​“inten­si­fy the sen­tence of death” with a ​“super­ad­di­tion of ter­ror, pain, or dis­grace” can be clas­si­fied as cru­el and unusual.

2023 — Missouri car­ries out the first known exe­cu­tion of an open­ly trans­gen­der woman, Amber McLaughlin.

Famous Cases

Roper v. Simmons (2005): Christopher Simmons was 17 years old when he and two oth­er teenagers, broke into the home of Shirley Crook, kid­napped her, and pushed her off a bridge into the Meremac River. Simmons bragged about the mur­der to friends, and even­tu­al­ly con­fessed to police. He was con­vict­ed of the crime and sen­tenced to death. Simmons appealed the death sen­tence on the basis that he was only 17 years old at the time of the crime, and the exe­cu­tion of a juve­nile was cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment in vio­la­tion of the Eighth Amendment. The Missouri Supreme Court ruled in favor of Simmons, over­turn­ing his death sen­tence and sen­tenc­ing him to life in prison with­out parole. The State of Missouri appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court ruled that exe­cu­tion of indi­vid­u­als who were under 18 at the time of their crime was uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. In its deci­sion, the Court not­ed a ​“nation­al con­sen­sus” against the prac­tice of exe­cut­ing juve­nile offend­ers; just 20 states allowed the juve­nile death penal­ty by statute, and only 3 had exe­cut­ed a juve­nile offend­er in the last 10 years.

Notable Exonerations

Joseph Amrine was serv­ing time for rob­bery and bur­glary in Missouri State Penitentiary when he was accused of stab­bing fel­low inmate Gary Barber, in 1986. No phys­i­cal evi­dence linked Amrine to the crime, and he was con­vict­ed pri­mar­i­ly based on tes­i­mo­ny from oth­er inmates and was sen­tenced to death. Amrine appealed his death sen­tence and the Missouri Surpreme Court found ​“clear and con­vinc­ing evi­dence of actu­al inno­cence.” Three inmates who had pre­vi­ous­ly tes­ti­fied recant­ed their state­ments, say­ing they lied in exchange for pro­tec­tion. Six oth­er inmates tes­ti­fied to see­ing Amrine play­ing cards at the time of the mur­der. The court ordered that Amrine be released with­in 30 days unless he was charged with anoth­er crime. Missouri pros­e­cu­tor Bill Tackett brought new mur­der charges on Amrine, but dropped the charges a month lat­er after DNA tests con­duct­ed on blood stains from the crime were incon­clu­sive. Amrine was freed in August 2003.

Notable Commutations/​Clemencies

Darrell Mease was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for the mur­der of his for­mer drug part­ner, Lloyd Lawrence, Lawrence’s wife, and Lawrence’s grand­son. He was sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in 1999. Pope John Paul II was vis­it­ing Missouri at the time and made a per­son­al plea to Governor Carnahan to grant Mease mer­cy. The day before Mease’s exe­cu­tion, Governor Carnahan grant­ed Mease clemen­cy, com­mut­ing his sen­tence to life without parole.

Resources

• American Bar Association Missouri Death Penalty Assessment Report
• Department of Corrections
• Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
• Missouri Office of Prosecution Services
• Public defend­er’s office
• Victims’ ser­vices
• Missouri Death Row
• 2015 Annual Report from Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty

Missouri Execution Totals Since 1976