As nation­al exe­cu­tion num­bers drop to his­toric lows and a grow­ing num­ber of states halt exe­cu­tions or repeal the death penal­ty alto­geth­er, Missouri has recent­ly increased the num­ber of exe­cu­tions it is car­ry­ing out and over­tak­en Texas for the high­est per-capi­ta exe­cu­tion rate. Missouri and Texas have car­ried out all of the last 15 exe­cu­tions in the U.S. and 80% of exe­cu­tions through September 1 of this year. A report by The Marshall Project explores why Missouri is buck­ing nation­al trends, high­light­ing the avail­abil­i­ty of exe­cu­tion drugs, Missouri’s polit­i­cal cli­mate, and the lack of ade­quate defense resources. While short­ages of lethal injec­tion drugs have slowed exe­cu­tions in many states, Missouri has man­aged to stock­pile pen­to­bar­bi­tral for use in exe­cu­tions. Because of state secre­cy laws, the source of the drug is unknown, and state offi­cials will not con­firm whether the drug is pro­duced by a com­pound­ing phar­ma­cy or obtained from anoth­er source, such as a vet­eri­nary sup­pli­er or over­seas man­u­fac­tur­er. The gov­er­nor and attor­ney gen­er­al of Missouri have pushed to move exe­cu­tions for­ward, using the death penal­ty to estab­lish ​“tough-on-crime” cre­den­tials as Democrats in a polit­i­cal­ly con­ser­v­a­tive state. Courts have also con­tributed to the unusu­al sit­u­a­tion in Missouri. The state Supreme Court, which sets exe­cu­tion dates, sched­uled one exe­cu­tion per month to make up for holds due to drug short­ages. Finally, under­fund­ing and heavy case­loads have cre­at­ed what defense attor­neys are call­ing a ​“cri­sis” in cap­i­tal rep­re­sen­ta­tion. Missouri was ranked 49th of the 50 states in per-capi­ta spend­ing on indi­gent defense in 2009. In March, the American Bar Association Death Penalty Assessment Team told the Missouri Supreme Court, ​“The cur­rent pace of exe­cu­tions is pre­vent­ing coun­sel for the con­demned from performing competently. ”

Missouri has been the sub­ject of charges of impro­pri­eties in obtain­ing exe­cu­tion drugs, includ­ing mak­ing secret cash pay­ments for exe­cu­tion drugs and vio­lat­ing fed­er­al law by alleged­ly obtain­ing pen­to­bar­bi­tal from a com­pound­ing phar­ma­cy with­out a valid pre­scrip­tion. The American Bar Association assess­ment com­plet­ed in 2012 report­ed numer­ous fail­ings in the state’s admin­is­tra­tion of the death penalty. 

(M. Chammah, ​“In the Execution Business, Missouri Is Surging,” The Marshall Project, August 31, 2015.) See Representation and Lethal Injection.

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