Capital punishment in Missouri

Capital punishment is a legal form of punishment in the U.S. state of Missouri. The state has executed the fifth largest number of convicts in the United States since re-legalization following Gregg v. Georgia in 1976.

History

The first person executed in the modern era was George Mercer who was executed at the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City, Missouri on January 6, 1989.^[1] The next 61 executions starting with Gerald Smith were done at the Potosi Correctional Center in Potosi, Missouri. Since 2005, executions have been 25 miles east of Potosi at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, Missouri. The first execution at Bonne Terre was #63 Donald Jones.

Temporary suspension

On June 26, 2006, U.S. District Judge Fernando J. Gaitan, Jr. of the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri in Kansas City suspended Missouri's death penalty after lengthy hearings on the matter. Judge Gaitan reasoned that the state's lethal injection protocol did not satisfy the Eighth Amendment because (1) the written procedures for implementing lethal injections were too vague, and (2) the state had no qualified anesthesiologist to perform lethal injections. Jay Nixon, the Missouri Attorney General, promptly appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in St. Louis.

The Eighth Circuit held oral argument in the case on January 10, 2007, and a decision was released on June 4, 2007. The case is number 06-3651, Taylor v. Crawford. The Court reversed the decision of the district court and vacated the injunction, allowing for the death penalty to resume. The court found:

• 1. Risk of accident in carrying out of execution protocol does not form basis for claim of cruel and unusual punishment in violation of Eighth Amendment; rather, inquiry on challenge to execution protocol is whether it inherently imposes constitutionally significant risk of pain.
• 2. State's lethal injection protocol, utilizing sodium pentothal (thiopental), pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride, did not involve substantial foreseeable risk of wanton infliction of pain, and thus did not have to mandate participation of anesthesiologist or additional monitoring equipment in order to comport with Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment; written protocol called for ample quantity of thiopental to cause unconsciousness, and mandated medical supervision by physician, emergency medical technician or nurse, including examination to confirm unconsciousness prior to third injection.

The first execution since Gaitan's ruling was on May 20, 2009. This suspension was partly due to a national de facto moratorium while the Supreme Court of the United States decided Baze v. Rees. The court set the first Missouri post-Baze execution date in June 2008. For various reasons no executions were conducted until May 20, 2009^[2][3]

Capital crimes

The following constitute the capital crimes in Missouri:^[4]

• First-degree murder
  • The offense was committed by a person with a prior record of conviction for murder in the first degree, or the offense was committed by a person who has one or more serious assaultive criminal convictions;
  • The murder in the first degree offense was committed while the offender was engaged in the commission or attempted commission of another unlawful homicide;
  • The offender by his act of murder in the first degree knowingly created a great risk of death to more than one person by means of a weapon or device which would normally be hazardous to the lives of more than one person;
  • The offender committed the offense of murder in the first degree for himself or another, for the purpose of receiving money or any other thing of monetary value from the victim of the murder or another;
  • The murder in the first degree was committed against a judicial officer, former judicial officer, prosecuting attorney or former prosecuting attorney, circuit attorney or former circuit attorney, assistant prosecuting attorney or former assistant prosecuting attorney, assistant circuit attorney or former assistant circuit attorney, peace officer or former peace officer, elected official or former elected official during or because of the exercise of his official duty;
  • The offender caused or directed another to commit murder in the first degree or committed murder in the first degree as an agent or employee of another person;
  • The murder in the first degree was outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman in that it involved torture, or depravity of mind;
  • The murder in the first degree was committed against any peace officer, or fireman while engaged in the performance of his official duty;
  • The murder in the first degree was committed by a person in, or who has escaped from, the lawful custody of a peace officer or place of lawful confinement;
  • The murder in the first degree was committed for the purpose of avoiding, interfering with, or preventing a lawful arrest or custody in a place of lawful confinement, of himself or another;
  • The murder in the first degree was committed while the defendant was engaged in the perpetration or was aiding or encouraging another person to perpetrate or attempt to perpetrate a felony of any degree of rape, sodomy, burglary, robbery, kidnapping, or any felony offense;
  • The murdered individual was a witness or potential witness in any past or pending investigation or past or pending prosecution, and was killed as a result of his status as a witness or potential witness;
  • The murdered individual was an employee of an institution or facility of the department of corrections of this state or local correction agency and was killed in the course of performing his official duties, or the murdered individual was an inmate of such institution or facility;
  • The murdered individual was killed as a result of the hijacking of an airplane, train, ship, bus or other public conveyance;
  • The murder was committed for the purpose of concealing or attempting to conceal any felony offense;
  • The murder was committed for the purpose of causing or attempting to cause a person to refrain from initiating or aiding in the prosecution of a felony offense;
  • The murder was committed during the commission of a crime which is part of a pattern of criminal street gang activity.^[5]
• Aggravated kidnapping
• Aircraft hijacking
• Drug trafficking
• Placing a bomb near a bus terminal
• Treason

A person convicted of first-degree murder may be sentenced instead to life in prison without parole.^[4]

As in any other state, people who are under 18 at the time of commission of the capital crime ^[6] or mentally retarded^[7] are constitutionally precluded from being executed.

Method

Typically, the death warrant will be read to the inmate (handed down from the Missouri Supreme Court) 30 days prior to the date of execution. At this point, the inmate is either moved to protective custody or remains in solitary isolation. One week prior to the execution date, the inmate is moved to the medical confinement unit. This is to ensure that the inmate's interaction with other inmates and visitors is closely monitored. There is no contact allowed with the condemned inmate at this time. Three days prior, a medicinal regiment is started. Anxiolytics are started, and the inmate's religious instructor and legal services are the only ones allowed to see the inmate. For the last 24 hours, the inmate chooses his or her final meal. He or she is medicated for anxiety as needed. The viewing gallery is set up. One hour before the time, the inmate is offered last rites. Ten minutes before the time, the inmate is either wheeled into the chamber in a wheelchair, or he or she may walk. At this point, three doctors will place two central lines. Then, the three doctors will exit to a room behind the chamber. During this time, the witnesses have been led in, with the victim(s)'s witnesses entering from one side of the unit and the inmate's witnesses from the other side. When ready, the curtains will be opened. The inmate will be read the warrant again, and asked for any last statements. The warden is present and will give the order shortly after midnight. The three doctors will simultaneously push a button to start the machine to begin the process. After a doctor pronounces the inmate as expired, the curtains are closed. The witnesses are then escorted out of the facility, and the coroner retrieves the body, as the room is classified as a crime scene. The death certificate will read "cause of death: Homicide-legal:___________" (the space is for the warrant number). Once the body has left the facility, it will be announced over the radio that "the new inmate count is__, begin count." Each housing unit will conduct a count, and there will be no change, except that now the medical unit will report a count of zero inmates. The command will confirm the count, then order the Emergency Squad to stand down.

See also

• Crime in Missouri
• List of people executed in Missouri
• List of wrongful convictions in the United States
• List of exonerated death row inmates
• List of death row inmates in the United States

References