Missouri man facing execution feels let down by lawyers as Gov. Parson denies clemency

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson has denied clemency to a 69-year-old veteran facing execution on Tuesday.

David Hosier was sentenced to death in 2013 for the murder of Angela Gilpin, 45. She and her husband, Rodney Gilpin, 61, were found dead Sept. 28, 2009, in the hallway of her Jefferson City apartment building.

Angela Gilpin and Hosier had been in a relationship before she ended up reconciling with her husband. Prosecutors presented Hosier as a scorned ex-lover, and he was convicted on circumstantial evidence, including an application for a protective order alleging he had stalked her and she was afraid of him.

“Ms. Angela Gilpin had her life stolen by David Hosier because he could not accept it when she ended their romantic involvement. He displays no remorse for his senseless violence,” Parson said in a statement Monday. “For these heinous acts, Hosier earned maximum punishment under the law. I cannot imagine the pain experienced by Angela’s and Rodney’s loved ones but hope that carrying out Hosier’s sentence according to the Court’s order brings closure.”

The death warrant will go into effect at 6 p.m. Tuesday. Executions are carried out at Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, about an hour south of St. Louis. The state uses a one-drug protocol in its lethal injections.

Hosier’s attorneys said Monday that he “deserved mercy, and his request for mercy was not a request for freedom, but a request to spend the rest of his natural life in prison.”

“Saying we are disappointed with Governor Parson’s decision to deny clemency to David Hosier minimizes the true of the depth of our disappointment,” the attorneys said in a statement.

In a 19-page clemency petition, Hosier’s legal team argued his life should be spared because he suffered a life-altering trauma as a teen when his father was killed in the line of duty as a police officer. They also noted that Hosier has a record of public service, including serving in the U.S. Navy, and has suffered recent health problems.

“David poses no threat to anyone else and executing an elderly man with heart failure does nothing to further the interests of justice,” his federal public defenders said in the clemency application.

In a phone interview Saturday, Hosier expressed dissatisfaction with some members of his legal team. He said he didn’t think his father’s death should have been included in the clemency application because “it had no bearing” on his criminal case.

Hosier maintains that he is innocent. There were no witnesses or DNA evidence linking him to the double homicide.

But most of his advocates have not promoted his claims.

His attorneys have not filed any last-minute appeals in state or federal court. Hosier said he feels like his attorneys have given up on his case and don’t care.

“I feel like I’ve been just sold out,” Hosier said.

“With me, it’s like ‘oh well.’”

Jeremy Weis, a federal public defender on Hosier’s case, said they have taken time to explain why they made the decisions they did. If an attorney presents something in court, Weis said, they have to have evidence to substantiate those claims. In the statement Monday, Hosier’s legal team said no new evidence offered a path to exoneration.

Weis also said that they have been coordinating with medical experts, including a cardiologist, regarding Hosier’s health and the execution process. Arrangements consistent with the medical recommendations have been accepted by the Missouri Department of Corrections without filing anything in court, Weis said.

In February, attorneys for Brian Dorsey, another man condemned to death in Missouri, sought an injunction in federal court, arguing that the corrections department’s two-page execution protocol was vague. The case was dismissed after the department agreed to additional safeguards.

Hosier’s execution is opposed by U.S. Representatives Emanuel Cleaver and Cori Bush. In a June 7 letter urging Parson to consider Hosier’s clemency plea, they said going forward with the execution “would end a life while using the concepts of fairness and justice as a cynical pretext.”

“Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done,” the representatives wrote. “The same is true for Mr. Hosier. As ordained ministers, we believe in accountability and the sanctity of life, and do not think these tenets are mutually exclusive.”

During an interview last month, Hosier said he believes Parson will one day meet his maker at the gates.

“I’ll shake his hand and I’ll still call him brethren,” he said.

Parson has denied clemency in all 11 of the death penalty cases that have come across his desk. The state executed four people last year and Dorsey on April 9.

This story was originally published June 10, 2024 at 3:01 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.