Entries tagged with “Lance Shockley”
Executions
Religion
,Feb 03, 2026
Restrictions on Spiritual Advisers in Execution Chambers Persist Despite Supreme Court Ruling
When Lance Shockley was executed in Missouri in October 2025, he requested the presence of his daughter, an ordained minister, in the execution chamber as his spiritual adviser. The Missouri Department of Corrections (MDOC) denied his request, and Mr. Shockley was executed. His case represents one example of how states have applied the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in Ramirez v. Collier, a decision that acknowledged the religious rights of death-sentenced prisoners at the time of their…
Dec 01, 2025
Facts About the Death Penalty – The Rarity of Clemency Grants
Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist once explained that executive clemency is intended to operate as the “fail safe” of the capital punishment system. It is the final opportunity, after all legal avenues have been exhausted, for an executive to decide whether to spare a prisoner from execution. Most grants of individual clemency come after consideration of one or more factors, including evidence of official misconduct or other unfair legal processes, ineffective assistance of counsel…
Upcoming Executions
,Oct 14, 2025
Missouri Governor Denies Clemency for Lance Shockley Despite Broad Bipartisan Support for Commutation of His Death Sentence
Update: Mr. Shockley was executed by lethal injection on October 14. He was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. Yesterday, Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe denied clemency to Lance Shockley, who is scheduled for execution today at 6 p.m. However, a recent survey found that Missouri voters, by a bipartisan two-thirds majority, would prefer to see Mr. Shockley’s death sentence commuted. Dr. Nicholas Scurich of the University of California, Irvine, found that 65% of the 440 registered Missouri voters…
Executions
Botched Executions
,Oct 08, 2025
Upcoming Executions Illustrate Persistent Themes and Concerns Around the Death Penalty
October 9, 2025 UPDATE: On October 9, 2025, just a week before his scheduled execution, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) granted Robert Roberson a stay of execution and remanded his case to the district court for further consideration of his request for relief based upon relief offered in a similar case, Ex parte Roark. Like Mr. Roberson’s case, Ex parte Roark, also involved a conviction based the now discredited “Shaken Baby Syndrome Hypothesis” (SBS) and the CCA granted relief to Mr.
Apr 15, 2025
United States Supreme Court Denies Review for Death-Sentenced Missouri Man Whose Jury Foreman Was Removed for Bias
On March 31, the Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal of Lance Shockley of Missouri, the 36th death-sentenced person to be denied certiorari by the Court this year. At trial, Mr. Shockley’s jury foreman was removed before the sentencing phase based on evidence of serious bias — but Mr. Shockley’s attorney declined the opportunity to question the foreman or other jurors about the misconduct, and his conviction, which the foreman participated in, was allowed to stand. Mr. Shockley’s claim on…