Missouri: Brian Dorsey executed – despite protests from prison officials and judge in charge

On Tuesday evening, 52-year-old Brian Dorsey was executed with a lethal injection – an overdose of pentobarbital – in the US state of Missouri. He was sentenced to death for the murder of his cousin and her husband in 2006. The couple’s four-year-old child survived unharmed.

Brian Dorsey was an exemplary prisoner without a single disciplinary measure during his entire time in prison from 2006 until his execution. On the contrary, he was not only popular among his fellow prisoners, but also with the prison staff.

He worked as a barber in prison and cut the guards’ hair – a prison job that requires the greatest trust in a prisoner. Accordingly, around 70 members of the prison staff had spoken out against the execution of the death sentence.

Missouri Supreme Court Justice Michael A. Wolff stated in a public statement: “Judging a man sentenced to death is a great responsibility, one that I have exercised with great care during my 13 years on the Missouri Supreme Court. In the case of Brian Dorsey, I now believe this is the rare instance in which we have erred. I am so convinced of our error that I have asked Governor Parson to grant Mr. Dorsey clemency. If Mr. Dorsey is executed on April 9, it will dishonor our system of justice.”

Wolff went on to explain that Dorsey’s public defender was paid a flat fee, an arrangement that is now illegal in Missouri because it results in attorneys not adequately advocating for their clients.

Abraham Bonowitz of Death Penalty Action was disappointed that clemency – in the form of commuting the death sentence to life imprisonment – was once again not an option. He wondered for whom the possibility of a pardon would even be an option, and explained that people like Governor Mike Parson would probably have executed Jesus and not pardoned him. In his final words

Brian Dorsey in a pre-written statement: “To my family, my friends and everyone who tried to stop this, I love you. I am grateful for you. I have peace in my heart, in large part because of you, and I thank you. To all of you who are on ALL sides of this verdict: I harbor no resentment or anger, only acceptance and understanding.”

Sources:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/brian-dorsey-missouri-execution-rcna147113
https://themissouritimes.com/opinion-as-a-judge-i-was-wrong-to-uphold-brian-dorseys-death-sentence-governor-parson-should-grant-him-clemency/