List of individuals executed in Missouri

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A total of 66 individuals convicted of murder have been executed by the state of Missouri since 1976. All were by executed by lethal injection. All executions in Missouri were suspended between June 26, 2006, and June 4, 2007, due to a federal court ruling (see below).

	Executed person	Date of execution	Murder Victim	Under Governor
1	George Mercer	6 January 1989	Karen Keeton.	John Ashcroft
2	Gerald Smith	18 January 1990	Karen Roberts.	John Ashcroft
3	Winford L. Stokes, Jr.	17 May 1990	Pamela Brenda.	John Ashcroft
4	Leonard Marvin Laws	17 May 1990	John Seward.	John Ashcroft
5	George Clifton Gilmore	21 August 1990	Mary Luella Watters.	John Ashcroft
6	Maurice Oscar Byrd	23 August 1991	Judy Cazaco, James Wood, Edna Ince, and Carolyn Turner.	John Ashcroft
7	Ricky Lee Grubs	21 October 1992	Jerry Thornton.	John Ashcroft
8	Martsay Bolder	27 January 1993	Theron King.	Mel Carnahan
9	Walter Junior Blair	21 July 1993	Kathy Jo Allen.	Mel Carnahan
10	Frederick Lasley	28 July 1993	Janie Tracy.	Mel Carnahan
11	Frank Joseph Guinan	6 October 1993	John McBroom.	Mel Carnahan
12	Emmitt Foster	3 May 1995	Travis Walker.	Mel Carnahan
13	Larry Griffin	21 June 1995	Quintin Moss.	Mel Carnahan
14	Robert Anthony Murray	26 July 1995	Jeffrey Jackson and Craig Stewart.	Mel Carnahan
15	Robert T. Sidebottom	15 November 1995	Mary Sidebottom.	Mel Carnahan
16	Anthony Joe Larette	29 November 1995	Mary Fleming.	Mel Carnahan
17	Robert Earl O'Neal	6 December 1995	Arthur Dale.	Mel Carnahan
18	Jeffrey Paul Sloan	21 February 1996	Jason Sloan.	Mel Carnahan
19	Doyle James Williams	10 April 1996	A. H. Domann.	Mel Carnahan
20	Emmett Clifton Nave	31 July 1996	Geneva Roling.	Mel Carnahan
21	Thomas Henry Battle	7 August 1996	Birdie Johnson.	Mel Carnahan
22	Richard Oxford	21 August 1996	Harold Wampler and Melba Wampler.	Mel Carnahan
23	Richard Steven Zeitvogel	11 December 1996	Gary Wayne Dew.	Mel Carnahan
24	Eric Adam Schneider	29 January 1997	Richard Schwendeman and Ronald Thompson.	Mel Carnahan
25	Ralph Cecil Feltrop	6 August 1997	Barbara Ann Roam.	Mel Carnahan
26	Donald Edward Reese	13 August 1997	James Watson, Christopher Griffith, John Buford, and Don Vanderlinden.	Mel Carnahan
27	Andrew Wessel Six	20 August 1997	Kathy Allen.	Mel Carnahan
28	Samuel Lee McDonald, Jr.	24 September 1997	Robert Jordan.	Mel Carnahan
29	Alan Jeffrey Bannister	24 October 1997	Darrell Ruestman.	Mel Carnahan
30	Reginald Love Powell	25 February 1998	Freddie Miller and Arthur Miller.	Mel Carnahan
31	Milton Vincent Griffin-El	25 March 1998	Jerome Redden.	Mel Carnahan
32	Glennon Paul Sweet	22 April 1998	Russell Harper.	Mel Carnahan
33	Kevin Shelby Malone	13 January 1999	William Parr. (He was also sentenced to death by the state of California.)	Mel Carnahan
34	James Edward Rodden, Jr.	24 February 1999	Terry Trunnel and Joseph Arnold.	Mel Carnahan
35	Roy Michael Roberts	10 March 1999	Tom Jackson.	Mel Carnahan
36	Roy Ramsey, Jr.	14 April 1999	Garnett Ledford and Betty Ledford.	Mel Carnahan
37	Ralph E. Davis	28 April 1999	Susan Davis.	Mel Carnahan
38	Jessie Lee Wise	26 May 1999	Geraldine McDonald.	Mel Carnahan
39	Bruce Kilgore	16 June 1999	Marilyn Wilkins.	Mel Carnahan
40	Robert Allen Walls	30 June 1999	Fred Harmon.	Mel Carnahan
41	David R. Leisure	1 September 1999	James A. Michaels, Sr.	Mel Carnahan
42	James Henry Hampton	22 March 2000	Frances Keaton.	Mel Carnahan
43	Bart Leroy Hunter	28 June 2000	Mildred Hodges and Richard Hodges.	Mel Carnahan
44	Gary Lee Roll	30 August 2000	Sherry Scheper, Randy Scheper and Curtis Scheper.	Mel Carnahan
45	George Bernard Harris	13 September 2000	Stanley Willoughby.	Mel Carnahan
46	James Wilson Chambers	15 November 2000	Jerry Lee Oestricker.	Roger B. Wilson
47	Stanley Dewaine Lingar	7 February 2001	Thomas Scott Allen.	Bob Holden
48	Tomas Grant Ervin	28 March 2001	Mildred Hodges and Richard Hodges.	Bob Holden
49	Mose Young, Jr.	25 April 2001	Kent Bicknese, James Schneider and Sol Marks.	Bob Holden
50	Samuel D. Smith	23 May 2001	Marlin May.	Bob Holden
51	Jerome Mallett	11 July 2001	James F. Froemsdorf.	Bob Holden
52	Michael S. Roberts	3 October 2001	Mary L. Taylor.	Bob Holden
53	Stephen K. Johns	24 October 2001	Donald Voepel.	Bob Holden
54	James R. Johnson	9 January 2002	Leslie B. Roark, Pam Jones, Charles Smith, and Sandra Wilson.	Bob Holden
55	Michael I. Owsley	6 February 2002	Elvin Iverson.	Bob Holden
56	Jeffrey Lane Tokar	6 March 2002	Johnny Douglass.	Bob Holden
57	Paul W. Kreutzer	10 April 2002	Louise Hemphill.	Bob Holden
58	Daniel Anthony Basile	14 August 2002	Elizabeth DeCaro.	Bob Holden
59	William Robert Jones, Jr.	20 November 2002	Stanley Albert.	Bob Holden
60	Kenneth Kenley	5 February 2003	Ronald Felts.	Bob Holden
61	John Clayton Smith	29 October 2003	Brandie Kearnes and Wayne Hoewing.	Bob Holden
62	Stanley L. Hall	16 March 2005	Barbara Jo Wood	Matt Blunt
63	Donald Jones	27 April 2005	Dorothy Knuckles	Matt Blunt
64	Vernon Brown	17 May 2005	Janet Perkins (He was also under sentence of death in the murder of Synetta Ford.)	Matt Blunt
65	Timothy Johnston	31 August 2005	Nancy Johnston	Matt Blunt
66	Marlin Gray	26 October 2005	Julie Kerry and Robin Kerry	Matt Blunt

[edit] Suspension of capital punishment in Missouri

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.

As of 2008, no executions still have taken place since Gaitan's ruling, partly due to a national de facto moratorium while the Supreme Court of the United States decided Baze v. Rees. On April 21, 2008, after the Supreme Court held that Kentucky's system of lethal injection (the same used by Missouri) did not violate the Eight Amendment, Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon asked the Supreme Court of Missouri to set execution dates for four death row inmates.^[1]