Missouri man asks U.S. Supreme Court to halt execution next week. Here are his arguments

A man facing execution next Tuesday has filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court arguing his trial attorneys provided “grossly deficient representation in a capital case.”

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

A death warrant goes into effect at 6 p.m. on April 9.

Dorsey was appointed two trial attorneys through the Missouri State Public Defender, who were each paid a flat fee of $12,000. That payment structure, his current attorneys argue, pits the lawyers’ interest in doing no more than what is minimally necessary to qualify for the payment with the client’s best interests.

According to the petition filed Tuesday, the two attorneys pressured Dorsey into pleading guilty while the death penalty remained on the table.

They also did not undertake an investigation and were “so lacking that they did not take the time to talk to Mr. Dorsey about the night of the crime,” the petition said.

Dorsey’s current legal team has argued that he was “statutorily innocent” of first-degree murder because he was in a state of drug psychosis when he killed the Bonnies.

“If Mr. Dorsey’s counsel had done the bare minimum investigation required of capital defense attorneys, they would have quickly learned that Mr. Dorsey did not possess the requisite intent for first-degree murder,” the petition said.

The flat fee payment structure is no longer used in capital cases by the state’s public defender system. It’s use is a violation of American Bar Association guidelines in death penalty cases.

Dorsey’s legal team has previously filed motions arguing the state’s lethal injection protocol was “tortuous” and that the head of the Missouri Department of Corrections is unqualified to oversee an execution.

Arguments in that case were heard Monday in Cole County Circuit Court.

Ben Clark, an attorney for Dorsey, told Judge Matthew Hamner that acting DOC director Trevor Foley had been appointed by Parson in December. But permanent directors, whose duties include overseeing executions, must be confirmed by the Missouri Senate.

Gregory Goodwin, an attorney for the state, said acting directors need to be able to carry out their responsibilities. Limiting their functions, he said, could call into question all of their duties and could cause the government to grind to a halt.

In an order issued Tuesday, Hamner said the questions raised by Dorsey’s legal team, which ultimately sought an injunction halting the execution, must be brought before the Missouri Supreme Court.

Over 150 people have signed onto a clemency application asking Missouri Gov. Mike Parson to grant Dorsey life without parole. Signatories included five jurors, over 70 corrections staff, three Republican state representatives and a former Missouri Supreme Court judge who in 2009 upheld Dorsey’s death sentence.

Several members of Dorsey’s family, including some who were related to Sarah Bonnie, oppose going through with the execution. Others said they asked Parson to deny clemency to Dorsey “for his heinous crimes that will let the justice for Sarah and Ben be carried out.”

This story was originally published April 2, 2024 at 2:21 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.