150 people sign letter opposing MO man’s execution, including jurors and Republican reps

Jurors, corrections officers and Republican state representatives have signed onto a request asking Missouri Gov. Mike Parson to grant clemency to a man facing execution next month.

Brian Dorsey, 51, was convicted in the 2006 killing of his cousin Sarah Bonnie and her husband Ben Bonnie in central Missouri.

The state of Missouri will execute Dorsey on April 9 unless a court halts the lethal injection or Parson steps in. Parson has denied every capital clemency request during his tenure as governor, including four last year.

Johnathan Shiflett, a spokesman for Parson’s office, said Wednesday that the governor and his legal team are in the process of reviewing the clemency application. Once Parson has made a decision, an announcement will be released prior to the scheduled execution date.

An application submitted to his office includes more than 150 signatories to letters supporting the commutation of Dorsey’s sentence to life without parole.

Five jurors who were part of the sentencing phase say Dorsey should be granted clemency.

“By the grace of God, I hope you will find your way to give him a life sentence instead of death,” one of them wrote in a letter to Parson.

More than 70 corrections employees who support Dorsey note that he has not had any conduct violations in prison and has served as the trusted barber at Potosi Correctional Center, where he cuts hair for both staff and prisoners.

According to the clemency application, Republican state representatives Tony Lovasco, of O’Fallon, Jeff Coleman, of Grain Valley, and Adam Schwadron, of St. Charles, said Dorsey “is uniquely deserving of our mercy and should not be executed.”

Dozens of Dorsey’s friends and family oppose his execution. Some were related to Sarah Bonnie, one of the victims. They said Dorsey struggled throughout his life with severe depression, which led him to addiction at an early age.

His attorneys have argued that he was experiencing drug psychosis the night of the double murder and was “incapable of deliberation – the requisite intent for capital murder.”

“Brian’s crime is a complete aberration for the Brian they have always known and loved,” family members said in a letter. “For this to have happened, they know he could not have been in his right mind.”

They also attested to his remorse and rehabilitation.

In a separate letter, other family members said they support going through with Dorsey’s execution. They said Dorsey’s crime was heinous and left a young girl without her parents.

Legal experts included in the clemency application said Dorsey was not given adequate representation during his trial. His trial attorneys were paid a flat fee through the office of the Missouri State Public Defender. The head of the system, Mary Fox, said in the clemency application that they no longer use that payment structure and that it is a violation of the American Bar Association guidelines. Dorsey’s trial attorneys, Fox said, did no investigation, presented no expert witness testimony and accepted a plea deal while the death penalty remained on the table.

Dorsey’s current attorneys have filed several motions in an effort to stop his execution. One argues that the acting director of the Missouri Department of Corrections is not qualified to oversee an execution.

A federal case contends that Missouri’s protocols present a “substantial risk of serious, torturous, physical and psychological pain.”

Dorsey’s execution is one of two scheduled this year in Missouri. A warrant of execution for David Russell Hosier will go into effect on June 11.

This story was originally published March 27, 2024 at 4:15 PM.

Katie Moore

The Kansas City Star

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Katie Moore was an enterprise and accountability reporter for The Star. She covered justice issues, including policing, prison conditions and the death penalty. She is a University of Kansas graduate and began her career as a reporter in 2015 in her hometown of Topeka, Kansas.