‘It should always be an option’: MO lawmakers stand by death penalty ahead of execution

Two Missouri lawmakers — one Republican, one Democrat — last December introduced bills to repeal the death penalty. The measures were referred to House committees where they sat the entire session without a single hearing or vote.

Eleven months later, the state executed Kevin Johnson by lethal injection on Tuesday evening.

Amid continuing controversy over the death penalty, the Missouri General Assembly has shown little interest in abolishing the practice. Missouri is one of 27 states where the death penalty remains in place, even after half a dozen states have ended it in the past 12 years.

Johnson’s execution has once again focused attention on the issue.

Johnson, at the age of 19, killed Kirkwood police Sgt. William McEntee in 2005. While there is no question Johnson killed McEntee, a special prosecutor engaged in a last-ditch effort to halt the execution, arguing racial bias affected the prosecution of Johnson. The Missouri Supreme Court heard arguments in the case on Monday and rejected them.

Johnson’s execution appears unlikely to alter the entrenched support for the death penalty among many state lawmakers.

“I support our current laws on the death penalty,” said state Sen. Denny Hoskins, a Warrensburg Republican. “I believe that it should be used for some people, especially the most heinous, violent criminals — it should always be an option for them.”

Hoskins said when Senate Republicans met a couple of weeks ago, the death penalty wasn’t discussed. “I’ve not heard any rumblings of taking on that and looking at that further,” he said.

After Missouri executed 10 people in 2014 — the most in any given year since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in the 1970s — and six people in 2015, the state hasn’t executed more than one person a year, according to data compiled by the Death Penalty Information Center. Johnson’s execution marked the second this year, however.

The Missouri Supreme Court has also scheduled the execution of Scott McLaughlin, a man who was convicted of raping and killing his ex-girlfriend in 2003, for Jan. 3 — potentially signaling the pace of executions will again pick up.

State Rep. Peter Merideth, a St. Louis Democrat who has previously supported legislation that would further restrict use of the death penalty, said there’s no widespread appetite among lawmakers for changes. He acknowledged he’s in the minority among legislators in wanting to end the practice.

“I would like to think we as a society should be at a point where we realize that killing people as a punishment doesn’t work as a deterrent and shouldn’t be who we are as a people,” Meredith said. “Affirmatively killing someone, especially with as often as we get it wrong and as often as it’s disproportionately applied, we should realize that it’s just plain a bad idea. And yet it continues.”

State Rep. Sarah Unsicker, a Shrewsbury Democrat who filed one of the bills to repeal the death penalty, said she has filed the measure multiple times. It has never received a hearing, she said. State Rep. Tony Lovasco, an O’Fallon Republican, filed the other bill.

Just debating the death penalty would have value, Unsicker said, even if lawmakers keep it.

“I think anytime there’s philosophical or moral debate over an issue, it’s good to have the debate and have the issue aired so that people can see their views and opposing views,” she said.

But even if death penalty opponents could advance legislation, they would face a significant obstacle in Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican and a former Polk County sheriff who has allowed multiple executions to proceed.

Democratic U.S. Reps. Emanuel Cleaver and Cori Bush last week wrote to Parson to ask him to spare Johnson. They noted that 37 states have either abolished the death penalty or not carried out an execution in 10 years.

“We implore Missouri to take similar action and do away with executions altogether,” Cleaver and Bush wrote.

But within moments of the Missouri Supreme Court ending arguments in Johnson’s case on Monday, Parson issued a statement making clear he wouldn’t intervene to stop his execution or grant clemency.

“The violent murder of any citizen, let alone a Missouri law enforcement officer, should be met only with the fullest punishment state law allows,” Parson said.

Johnson’s first trial over killing McEntee ended in a hung jury. A second jury found him guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced him to death.

In emails with The Star, Johnson expressed remorse. “I hate myself for July 5, 2005,” he wrote in a Nov. 1 email. Early Monday, he wrote that he was “unconditionally sorry for my actions.”

State Sen. Mike Cierpiot, a Lee’s Summit Republican, said he would never support legislation that repealed the death penalty. However, he said his main issue with the death penalty is the length of time between when a crime is committed and when a person is put to death.

He said the period of time needs to be shortened so people associate crime and punishment together.

“When somebody’s executed it’s for some very, very heinous crime,” he said. “But many times it’s 15 or 18 years ago and it’s out of everybody’s memory. And I think that’s one of the problems we have. It’s so difficult to do.”

Merideth said death penalty opponents usually find a way to bring up the issue every session and he expects that to continue next year. Often, lawmakers can force at least brief debate during the budget process by offering amendments to effectively defund the state’s ability to carry out executions — even if bills to repeal it outright are ignored.

“I expect the conversation to come up again,” Merideth said.

The Star’s Katie Moore contributed reporting

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