Lance Shockley, 48, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Tuesday evening in Missouri. Photo courtesy of Missouri Department of Corrections/Website
Missouri on Tuesday is scheduled to execute its first death row inmate of this year for the 2005 murder of a state highway patrol officer.
Lance Shockley, 48, is to die by lethal injection starting at 6 p.m. CST at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, Mo.
He was convicted of murdering Sgt. Carl DeWayne Graham Jr., the Missouri State Highway Patrol officer investigating Shockley for manslaughter in connection to an earlier car crash, on March 20, 2005.
Shockley maintains his innocence.
On Monday, Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe denied Shockley’s request for clemency.
“Mr. Shockley has received every legal protection afforded to him under the Missouri and United States Constitutions, and his conviction and sentence will remain for his brutal, deliberate crime,” the Republican governor said in a statement.
“The State of Missouri has — and will continue to — pursue justice to the fullest extent of the law.”
On Monday night, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit also rejected Shockley’s request to have his two daughters, who are both ministers, serve as his spiritual advisors.
According to court documents, one of his daughters would perform communion and anoint Shockley with oil, and the other would touch and pray over him during the execution.
The court ruled that his request be denied due to the absence of a substantial burden on his religious exercise.
According to court documents, Shockley was convicted of fatally shooting Graham at about 4 p.m. March 20, 2005, as the officer was returning home.
Prosecutors said Shockley killed Graham for investigating him in connection to the Nov. 26, 2004, death of his sister-in-law’s fiance, Jeffrey Bayless.
Bayless was the front seat passenger in a truck being driven by Shockley, who lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a ditch, killing the man. Prosecutors said he had been drinking.
Florida is also scheduled to kill Samuel Smithers, 72, for killing two women in 1996.
Shockley is to be Missouri’s first execution of the year, while Smithers is to be Florida’s 14th — a record high for the Sunshine State since executions resumed in 1976.
So far this year, there have been 35 executions so far in the United States.
