death penalty

A jury found Lance Shockley guilty of a 2005 murder but deadlocked on the punishment. A judge in Carter County issued the death sentence.

Missouri law allowed a judge to sentence Shockley to death in 2009 even after a jury deadlocked and couldn’t decide on the punishment. Last week, advocates marched to Gov. Mike Kehoe's office to deliver a petition with 31,000 signatures asking for an investigation.

Only Missouri and Indiana allow judges to impose capital punishment when a jury can't decide whether to sentence a defendant to death. Lance Shockley is scheduled to be executed next week for a 2005 murder he maintains he did not commit.

Missouri is one of two states where a judge can hand down death when juries cannot agree unanimously on a sentence. Since the law changed in 1984, at least 18 people have been sentenced to death by a judge, and four have been executed.

A Wyandotte County judge agreed with criticisms of the death penalty, but he said the case was invalid because both defendants no longer face capital punishment.

A Boone County judge on Monday will hear a motion by Deandra Buchanan to reopen his 2002 triple murder case, with the ultimate goal of showing he should be given a new trial. Buchanan says his original case violated his due process rights.

Missouri exonerees are only eligible for compensation if they're proven innocent through DNA evidence, leaving many wrongfully convicted people without any support once they leave prison. A bipartisan bill in the Missouri General Assembly would expand who qualifies for restitution.

In an unusual court proceeding that began in October, the ACLU and other attorneys asserted that Kansas' death penalty law should be struck down because prospective jurors must be willing to impose capital punishment to serve — meaning that Black jurors get disproportionately excluded.

The men will now spend the rest of their lives behind bars. They were convicted of crimes near Forest Park and in Springfield.

The American Civil Liberties Union joins law firms to argue that capital trial juries in Kansas are racially discriminatory.

Marcellus Williams had always maintained that he had nothing to do with the stabbing death of a former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter. State and federal courts rejected numerous last-minute requests to halt the execution and review the case.

Without intervention from the U.S. Supreme Court, Marcellus Williams will be executed after 6 p.m. Tuesday. Gov. Mike Parson has said he will not grant clemency to Williams.