Missouri man’s execution should be stopped because juror could not read, lawyers say

Attorneys for Michael Tisius — scheduled for execution June 6 at a prison in eastern Missouri — say a man who served on the jury was not qualified and Tisius’ death sentence should be vacated.

Information about the juror surfaced late last month and led Tisius’ legal team to file a petition requesting the Missouri Supreme Court re-sentence him to life in prison instead of the death penalty.

Tisius, 42, was convicted in the deaths of Jason Acton and Leon Egley. The two Randolph County jailers were fatally shot on June 22, 2000, in a failed effort to free another prisoner, according to The Star’s archives. The 2001 trial took place in Boone County.

During post-conviction proceedings, the court found evidence of prosecutorial misconduct and granted him a new sentencing hearing.

In July 2010, the death penalty was again handed down.

On April 28, Tisius’ lawyers interviewed juror number 28 as part of a clemency investigation. Attorney Keith O’Connor said they made “a startling discovery”: The juror was not able to read or write.

When the judge asked the jury pool if anyone could not read, speak and understand English, no one responded.

According to Missouri law, a person is disqualified from serving on a jury if they are unable to read, speak and understand English.

O’Connor said the juror could not read the diagrams, letters or expert reports admitted into evidence.

According to a declaration signed April 29, the man said a courthouse employee helped him fill out his juror questionnaire. The questionnaires were destroyed within a year of the re-sentencing hearing. The declaration also said the man does not think he would have changed his mind on the verdict, but he would have liked to have heard from Tisius and Roy Vance, the man Tisius attempted to break out of the jail. The declaration was read to him by a witness because he cannot read.

Tisius’ attorneys said they did not know if prosecutors were aware that the juror was unqualified.

“Missouri stands for the idea of fair play, and Mr. Tisius has a constitutionally guaranteed right to have 12 qualified jurors sit in judgment. He was deprived of this right,” O’Connor said. “Missouri’s continued attempts to execute him, even in the face of blatant unconstitutionality, smells of foul play.”

The Missouri Attorney General’s Office said they will be filing a written response with the court shortly, and declined to comment.

Last month, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights issued a resolution saying the state violated Tisius’ rights by not protecting him from severe neglect and abuse as a child and using exaggerated evidence about his behavior in prison during re-sentencing.

Tisius was 19 at the time of the double murder. His legal team has argued that he “lacked an adult capacity to make reasonable judgments,” and allege that Vance manipulated Tisius into attempting to help him break out of jail.

They also say Tisius suffers from brain defects and dysfunction and have filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court for him to undergo brain imaging.

Two people have been executed so far this year in Missouri. Amber McLaughlin, 49, was the first openly transgender woman to be executed on Jan. 3, and Leonard “Raheem” Taylor, 58, was put to death despite maintaining his innocence in a quadruple killing.

In addition to Tisius, the Missouri Supreme Court has issued an execution warrant for Johnny Johnson, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Aug. 1.

Missouri is one of four states that have carried out executions so far this year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.