Rejecting calls for mercy from opponents of the death penalty, Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe announced Monday that Lance Shockley's execution will be carried out as planned at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
The execution, the first under Kehoe's governorship, follows more than a decade of Shockley's failed legal appeals.
Kehoe called the 2005 murder of Missouri Highway Patrol trooper Carl DeWayne Graham, Jr., a "brutal and deliberate crime" in the press release.
Kehoe added the killing "was an attack not only on a dedicated law enforcement officer, but on the rule of law itself."
In 2005, Shockley was arrested for the murder in Carter County — at the time, Graham was investigating Shockley as the driver in a fatal car crash.
On March 20, 2005 a passing motorist found Graham dead near his residence in Van Buren. Investigators determined the trooper had been shot and killed during an apparent ambush. Shockley was charged with the killing, but maintained his innocence.
At the trial in 2009, prosecutors pointed to ballistics evidence from the shooting and the strong motive for Shockley to stop Graham's investigation. However, while the jury found Shockley guilty of first-degree murder, they deadlocked on the punishment.
In most states, such a scenario might prompt an automatic life sentence or require a judge to order another penalty phase. In Missouri, the law allows a judge facing a deadlocked jury to carry out their own sentencing — including death.
Mary Fox, the former director of the state's public defender system, criticized the law as a "loophole" that gives judges too much power.
"I believe it is wrong. I believe it needs to be changed," said Fox, who recently came out of retirement to lead the Death Penalty Abolition Program of the Archdiocese of St. Louis.
Shockley's trial "is not the only case in which the jury could not return a verdict," Fox added. "We have actually executed people where the verdict was 11-to-1 for life, but … the judge decided to proceed with a sentence of death."
Last week, advocates marched to the governor's office to deliver a petition with 31,000 signatures, asking him to appoint a board of inquiry to evaluate Shockley's innocence claims.
Heidi Moore, the executive director of the group Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty, said she had held out hope that Kehoe would recognize that Shockley's case — including the presence of untested DNA evidence — deserved further investigation.
"Courts make mistakes," Moore said Monday on St. Louis on the Air. "Governors can fix those mistakes, and Gov. Kehoe has chosen not to use his power to do that."
To hear the full conversation with Mary Fox and Heidi Moore, including insight on Lance Shockley from a prison guard at the Potosi Correctional Center, listen to "St. Louis on the Air" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube, or click the play button below.
"St. Louis on the Air" brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. The production intern is Darrious Varner. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
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