A Missouri man is scheduled to be executed Tuesday after being convicted of shooting a state trooper more than 20 years ago.
Lance Shockley He was convicted of killing a Missouri State Highway Patrol sergeant. Carl Dwayne Graham Jr. in March 2005. Prosecutors say Shockley waited for hours near Officer Van Buren’s home in southeast Missouri before shooting him with a rifle and a shotgun after Graham got out of his patrol car.
Shockley, 48, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection after 6 p.m. local time at the state prison in Bonne Terre, Missouri.
It is one of two executions scheduled for Tuesday evening in the United States in Florida. Samuel Lee Smithers(72 years old) is scheduled to receive a lethal injection for killing two women whose bodies were found in a rural pond in 1996.
GOP Gov. Mike Kehoe on Monday denied Shockley’s request for clemency.
“Violence against those who risk their lives every day to protect our communities will never be tolerated. Missouri stands firmly with our men and women in uniform,” Kehoe said in a statement.
Last week, the Missouri Supreme Court denied a request to stay Shockley’s execution until the state’s lower appellate court rules on a petition filed by Shockley’s lawyers requesting DNA testing of evidence found at the scene. Jeremy Weiss, one of Shockley’s attorneys, said Monday that the lower appeals court was unlikely to rule on the DNA testing request before Tuesday’s execution. Shockley’s lawyers say much of this evidence has never been tested and could help exonerate Shockley.
“Even a small chance of acquittal is sufficient to justify probation,” Shockley’s lawyers said in court documents.
Shockley’s lawyers also argued that his First Amendment rights had been violated since the Missouri Department of Corrections prohibited his daughter from being his son. Spiritual advisor During implementation. His lawyers also cited this claim when they asked the federal appeals court to halt his execution. In March 2022, The US Supreme Court ruled States should allow spiritual advisors to join condemned prisoners in the execution chamber.
Missouri officials have argued that state prison policy prohibits family members from direct contact with inmates during the execution process because of security concerns that could interfere with the process.
Authorities said Shockley shot Graham because a state trooper was investigating him for manslaughter after he left the scene of the fatal crash in which Shockley’s best friend was killed. Prosecutors said Shockley borrowed his grandmother’s red Pontiac Grand Am, which was seen near Graham’s home on the day of the murder.
Shockley shot Graham first with a rifle, severing his spinal cord and causing him to fall to the ground and fracture his skull, according to prosecutors. Shockley then approached Graham and shot him in the face and shoulder with a shotgun. Shockley owned a .243 caliber rifle and a .243 caliber bullet was recovered from Graham’s body. Bullet fragments found on Shockley’s uncle’s property matched bullets recovered from the soldier’s body, according to court documents filed by the Missouri Attorney General’s Office.
Prosecutors have presented no direct evidence linking Shockley to the killing, Weiss said.
“The state’s case remained circumstantial,” Weiss said last week during a forum at the University of Missouri School of Law to discuss the case. “The murder weapons were never found. There were disagreements between the ballistics experts appointed by the prosecution.”
Shockley’s attorneys also say other witnesses placed his client about 14 miles (22.5 kilometers) from Graham’s home at the time prosecutors assert he was lying near the soldier’s home.
Prosecutors say Shockley inquired where Graham lived before the killing and tried to dispose of a .243-caliber ammunition box around the time of the murder, according to court documents.
Positive DNA test results, “even if obtained, would not tend to undermine Shockley’s conviction,” prosecutors said.
If the death sentence is carried out, Shockley will be the first person executed this year in Missouri. The last execution in the state was on December 3 Christopher Collings He received lethal injection for the sexual assault and murder of a 9-year-old girl.
If the two executions are carried out on Tuesday, the total number of executions this year will reach 37 Death sentences Implemented nationwide.
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