Missouri executes Brian Dorsey following significant legal battles

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The state of Missouri executed Brian Dorsey in the evening of April 9, following repeated attempts by his attorneys to at least secure more time for the man convicted of killing his cousin, Sarah Bonnie, and her husband, Ben, in 2006 in their home in Callaway County.

After the Supreme Court issued an execution warrant in December, Dorsey filed a writ petition arguing that he was “actually innocent” of first-degree murder because his drug-induced psychosis made him incapable of deliberation, and that his trial lawyer, who had represented him under a flat-fee arrangement, had a financial incentive to persuade him to plead guilty to get the case over quickly.

In a separate writ petition, Dorsey cited his good behavior in prison and argued that he belonged to a “unique class of persons for whom the penological goals supporting capital punishment are no longer met.”

The court denied the claims in a unanimous opinion on March 20 that addressed both petitions. Judge W. Brent Powell wrote for the court that there was plenty of evidence for a jury to conclude that Dorsey had deliberated in committing the murders and that his expert witnesses could only speculate that he was psychotic at the time.

Powell said the argument over the trial counsel’s alleged conflict of interest had been raised and rejected in an earlier post-conviction motion. Dorsey’s argument about his model behavior, Powell said, was ultimately “a plea for clemency.”

“Accordingly, Dorsey’s claim seeking relief from his death sentence based on post-trial prison behavior should be directed to the governor rather than this Court,” Powell wrote.

Dorsey recently asked the Supreme Court to stay his execution, as he had pending litigation in the Cole County Circuit Court asking for injunctive relief or a writ of prohibition, preventing the execution from being carried out while Acting Director Trevor Foley leads the Department of Corrections. Dorsey argued that because Foley has not been confirmed by the Senate and appears to lack the requisite education, training, and experience required by statute, carrying out the execution under his leadership would increase the likelihood of a botched execution or security issues.

Dorsey told the Supreme Court that, since the case would not conclude before April 9, and since it’s in the public’s interest not to carry out an unlawful execution, the court should order a stay. The court, however, disagreed, finding that Dorsey’s arguments concerning Foley were unlikely to succeed. The Supreme Court therefore overruled Dorsey’s motion on April 5.

On April 7, Dorsey filed a petition for writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court, asking it to find that the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits executions when the sentenced person has demonstrated that they have been rehabilitated and the penological goals of the death penalty would not be met. However, on April 9, the Supreme Court denied taking up the issue, though it did not state a reason.

“Brian Dorsey is kind, gentle, hardworking, and humble. He has spent every day of the past 18 years trying to make up for the single act of violence he committed, serving the prison community as the staff barber and never getting in even the slightest trouble. More than 70 correctional officers, the people who spent day in and day out with him over nearly two decades at Potosi Correctional Center, came together to urge clemency for Brian. These correctional officers told Governor Parson about Brian’s exceptional remorse and redemption, and they said Brian’s execution would hurt them. If anyone deserves mercy, surely it is Brian, who has been fully rehabilitated and whose death sentence was so flawed that five of his jurors believe he should not be executed,” Assistant Federal Public Defender Kirk J. Henderson, who represented Dorsey, said in a press release following the denial.

In his last statement, the Kansas City Star reported Dorsey wrote he had peace in his heart and that he carries no ill will, only acceptance and understanding, toward those on all sides of his sentence.

“To all of the family and loved ones I share with Sarah and to all of the surviving family and loved ones of Ben, I am truly deeply overwhelmingly sorry,” he wrote. “Words cannot hold the just weight of my guilt and shame. I still love you. I never wanted to hurt anyone. I am sorry I hurt them and you.”