Missouri governor denies clemency to Brian Dorsey, man facing execution Tuesday

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson will not grant clemency to Brian Dorsey, a prisoner on death row who faces execution on Tuesday.

The death warrant will go into effect at 6 p.m., which is when execution staff can begin the protocols leading up to Dorsey’s death.

Executions are carried out at Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, about an hour south of St. Louis.

The state uses lethal injection.

Dorsey, 52, was convicted in the 2006 killing of his cousin Sarah Bonnie and her husband Ben Bonnie in central Missouri.

Parson said Dorsey punished his family after they took him in and gave him a place to stay.

“Dorsey repaid them with cruelty, inhumane violence, and murder,” the governor said in a statement.

“The pain Dorsey brought to others can never be rectified, but carrying out Dorsey’s sentence according to Missouri law and the Court’s order will deliver justice and provide closure.”

Dorsey’s legal team submitted a clemency application to Parson that included more than 150 signatories to letters that supported commuting his sentence to life without parole. Supporters included over 70 corrections employees, five jurors, three Republican state representatives and a former Missouri Supreme Court judge who in 2009 upheld Dorsey’s death sentence.

Megan Crane, an attorney for Dorsey, said allowing him to be executed was devastating.

“Governor Parson has chosen to ignore the wealth of information before him showing that Brian Dorsey is uniquely deserving of mercy,” she said in a statement. “Brian has spent every day of his time in prison trying to make amends for his crime, and dozens of correctional officers have attested to his remorse, transformation, and commitment to service. Brian’s unprecedented support, and his irrefutable evidence of redemption, are precisely the circumstances for which clemency is designed.”

In recent months, attorneys for Dorsey have argued he was in a state of drug induced psychosis the night of the double murder and was “incapable of deliberation,” making him ineligible for a first-degree murder charge. That was struck down by the Missouri Supreme Court last month.

They also sought an injunction in a motion arguing that the head of the Missouri Department of Corrections, acting director Trevor Foley, should not be allowed to oversee an execution. Lawyers said a permanent director is confirmed by the Missouri Senate and that Foley’s background in finance and budgeting made him unqualified to oversee the implementation of the lethal injection protocol. That was also rejected by the courts.

Dorsey’s legal team has two pending petitions with the U.S. Supreme Court. One argues that his trial attorneys provided “grossly deficient representation in a capital case.” The second case notes Dorsey has not had an infraction in the more than 17 years he has spent on death row.

“The penological goal of rehabilitation has been satisfied and the capital punishment goals of retribution and deterrence are not met by an execution,” his attorneys said in the petition.

If the court does not intervene, Missouri will be the fourth state to carry out an execution this year. Alabama, Texas and Georgia have also carried out capital sentences, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Last year, Missouri executed four people.

This story was originally published April 8, 2024 at 1:36 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.