A Missouri man will be executed Tuesday for fatally shooting a state trooper more than 20 years ago.
Lance Shockley was convicted of killing Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Carl Dewayne Graham Jr. in March 2005. Prosecutors say Shockley waited for hours near the officer’s home in Van Buren in southeastern Missouri before shooting him with a rifle and 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.
His is one of two executions scheduled for Tuesday afternoon in the United States. In Florida, Samuel Lee Smithers, 72, will receive a lethal injection for killing two women whose bodies were found in a rural pond in 1996.
Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe on Monday rejected Shockley’s clemency request.
“Violence against those who risk their lives every day to protect our communities will never be tolerated. Missouri stands firmly behind 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 a lower state appeals court rules on a petition by Shockley’s attorneys seeking DNA testing of evidence found at the scene. Jeremy Weis, one of Shockley’s attorneys, said Monday that the lower appeals court is unlikely to rule on the request for DNA testing before Tuesday’s execution. Shockley’s attorneys say much of this evidence has never been proven and could help exonerate Shockley.
“Even a small chance of exoneration is enough to justify testing,” Shockley’s attorneys said in court papers.
Shockley’s attorneys have also argued that his First Amendment rights are being violated since the Missouri Department of Corrections banned his daughter from being his spiritual advisor during the execution. His lawyers also referenced this claim when they asked a federal appeals court to stay his execution. In March 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states must allow spiritual advisors to join condemned prisoners in the death chamber.
Missouri officials have argued that state prison policy prevents family members from having direct contact with inmates during an execution because of security concerns that they could interfere with the process.
Authorities said Shockley shot Graham because state police were investigating him for involuntary manslaughter after leaving the scene of a fatal crash that killed Shockley’s best friend. 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 first shot Graham 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 .243 caliber bullets were recovered from Graham’s body. Bullet fragments found on Shockley’s uncle’s property matched bullets recovered from the police officer’s body, according to court documents filed by the Missouri attorney general’s office.
Prosecutors presented no direct evidence connecting Shockley to the murder, Weis said.
“The state’s case remains circumstantial,” Weis said last week during a forum at the University of Missouri School of Law discussing the case. “The murder weapons were never found. There were disagreements between the ballistics experts hired by the prosecution.”
Shockley’s attorneys also say other witnesses located their client about 14 miles (22.5 kilometers) from Graham’s home at the time prosecutors contended he was lurking near the police officer’s home.
Prosecutors say Shockley had asked where Graham lived before the murder and had tried to get rid of a box of .243-caliber ammunition at the time of the murder, according to court documents.
Prosecutors said favorable DNA test results, “even if obtained, would not tend to undermine Shockley’s conviction.”
If the execution is carried out, Shockley would be the first person executed this year in Missouri. The last execution in the state was Dec. 3, when Christopher Collings received a lethal injection for sexually assaulting and killing a 9-year-old girl.
If Tuesday’s two executions go ahead, this year’s total would rise to 37 death sentences carried out nationwide.
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