Missouri man who maintains innocence set to be executed for killing state trooper

A Missouri man is set to be executed on Tuesday for fatally shooting a state trooper more than 20 years ago.

Lance Shockley was condemned for killing Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Carl Dewayne Graham Jr. in March 2005. Prosecutors say Shockley waited for hours near the trooper’s Van Buren home in southeast Missouri before shooting him with a rifle and shotgun after Graham exited his patrol vehicle.

Shockley, 48, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection after 6 p.m. local time at the state prison in Bonne Terre, Missouri.

His is one of two executions scheduled for Tuesday evening in the U.S. In Florida, Samuel Lee Smithers, 72, is set to receive a lethal injection for killing two women whose bodies were found in a rural pond in 1996.

GOP Gov. Mike Kehoe on Monday turned down Shockley’s request for clemency.

“Violence against those who risk their lives every day to protect our communities will never be tolerated. Missouri stands firmly with our men and women in uniform,” Kehoe said in a statement.

Last week, the Missouri Supreme Court denied a request to stay Shockley’s execution until a lower state appeals court issues a ruling on a petition by Shockley’s attorneys asking for DNA testing of evidence found at the scene. Jeremy Weis, one of Shockley’s attorneys, said Monday it’s unlikely the lower appeals court will issue a ruling on the DNA testing request before Tuesday’s execution. Shockley’s lawyers say much of this evidence has never been tested and could help exonerate Shockley.

“Even a small chance of exoneration is enough to warrant testing,” Shockley’s lawyers said in court documents.

Shockley’s attorneys have also argued his First Amendment rights are being violated since the Missouri Department of Corrections prohibited his daughter from being his spiritual adviser during the execution. His attorneys also referenced this claim when asking a federal appeals court to stay his execution. In March 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled states must allow spiritual advisers to join condemned inmates in the death chamber.

Missouri officials have argued state prison policy prevents family members from having direct contact with inmates during an execution due to security concerns they might interfere with the process.

Authorities said Shockley shot Graham because the state trooper was investigating him for involuntary manslaughter after leaving the scene of a deadly accident in which Shockley’s best friend was killed. Prosecutors said Shockley borrowed his grandmother’s red Pontiac Grand Am, which was seen near Graham’s home on the day of the killing.

Shockley first shot Graham with a rifle, severing his spinal cord and causing him to fall to the ground and fracture his skull, according to prosecutors. Shockley then approached Graham and shot him in the face and shoulder with a shotgun. Shockley owned a .243-caliber rifle and .243-caliber rounds were recovered from Graham’s body. Bullet fragments found on the property of Shockley’s uncle matched the rounds recovered from the trooper’s body, according to court documents filed by the Missouri attorney general’s office.

Prosecutors presented no direct evidence connecting Shockley to the killing, Weis said.

“The state’s case remained circumstantial,” Weis said last week during a forum at the University of Missouri School of Law discussing the case. “The murder weapons were never found. There were disagreements between the ballistics experts hired by the prosecution.”

Shockley’s attorneys also say other witnesses placed his client about 14 miles (22.5 kilometers) away from Graham’s home at the time the prosecutors maintained he was lying in wait near the trooper’s house.

Prosecutors say Shockley had inquired about where Graham lived before the murder and tried to get rid of a box of .243-caliber ammunition around the time of the murder, according to court documents.

Prosecutors said that favorable DNA test results, “even if obtained, would not tend to undermine Shockley’s conviction.”

If the execution is carried out, Shockley would be the first person put to death this year in Missouri. The last execution in the state was on Dec. 3, when Christopher Collings received a lethal injection for sexually assaulting and killing a 9-year-old girl.

If both of Tuesday’s executions take place, that would bring this year’s total to 37 death sentences carried out nationwide.

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