XPost: alt.atheism, alt.society.liberalism, stl.general   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: more@soon.com   
      
   On 19 Dec 2021, Rudy Canoza  posted some   
   news:N7JvJ.86993$JZ3.45290@fx05.iad:   
      
   > Justice is done.  Now kill 100 blacks to balance the scales.   
      
   BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man who shot and killed two jailers   
   nearly 23 years ago during a failed bid to help an acquaintance escape   
   from a rural jail was executed Tuesday evening.   
      
   Michael Tisius, 42, received a lethal injection of pentobarbital at the   
   state prison in Bonne Terre and was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m.,   
   authorities said. He was convicted of the June 22, 2000, killings of Leon   
   Egley and Jason Acton at the small Randolph County Jail.   
      
   Tisius breathed hard a few times as the drug was administered, then fell   
   silent. His spiritual adviser, Melissa Potts-Bowers, was in the room with   
   him. Because the execution chamber is surrounded by soundproof glass, it’s   
   not known what they were saying to each other.   
      
   In a final written statement, Tisius said he tried hard “to become a   
   better man,” and he expressed remorse for his crimes.   
      
   “I am sorry,” he wrote. “And not because I am at the end. But because I   
   truly am sorry.”   
      
   Tisius’ lawyers had urged the U.S. Supreme Court to block the execution,   
   alleging in appeals that a juror at a sentencing hearing was illiterate,   
   in violation of Missouri law. The court rejected that motion Tuesday   
   afternoon.   
      
   The Supreme Court previously turned aside another argument — that Tisius   
   should be spared because he was just 19 at the time of the killings. A   
   2005 Supreme Court ruling bars executions of those under 18 when their   
   crime occurred, but attorneys for Tisius had argued that even at 19, when   
   the killings occurred, Tisius should have had his sentence commuted to   
   life in prison without parole.   
      
   Advocates for Tisius had said he was largely neglected as a child and was   
   homeless by his early teens. His path to the death chamber began in 1999   
   when, as an 18-year-old, he was jailed on a misdemeanor charge of pawning   
   a rented stereo system.   
      
   In June 2000, Tisius was housed on that charge at the same county jail in   
   Huntsville with inmate Roy Vance. Tisius was about to be released, and   
   court records show the men discussed a plan in which Tisius, once he was   
   out, would help Vance escape.   
      
   Just after midnight on June 22, 2000, Tisius went to the jail accompanied   
   by Vance’s girlfriend, Tracie Bulington. They told Egley and Acton that   
   they were there to deliver cigarettes to Vance. The jailers didn’t know   
   that Tisius had a pistol.   
      
   At trial, Bulington testified that she looked up and saw Tisius with the   
   gun drawn, then watched as he shot and killed Acton. When Egley   
   approached, Tisius shot him, too. Both officers were unarmed.   
      
   Tisius found keys at the dispatch area and tried to open Vance’s cell, but   
   couldn’t. When Egley grabbed Bulington’s leg, Tisius shot him several more   
   times.   
      
   Tisius and Bulington fled but their car broke down later that day in   
   Kansas. They were arrested in Wathena, Kansas, about 130 miles (210   
   kilometers) west of Huntsville. Tisius confessed to the crimes.   
      
   Sid Conklin, now presiding commissioner of Randolph County, was a Missouri   
   State Highway Patrol officer who investigated the killings in 2000.   
   Conklin said the deaths of the two young jailers — both in their 30s —   
   still haunt the community.   
      
   “I hope this brings closure for all citizens of Randolph County,” said   
   Conklin, who witnessed the execution.   
      
   Another now-retired highway patrol investigator, Randy King, described the   
   jailers as “good, everyday people trying to make a living.”   
      
   “I pray for the guy’s (Tisius’) soul, but it’s been 23 years and it’s time   
   for justice to be served,” King said. He also witnessed the execution.   
      
   Bulington and Vance are serving life sentences on murder convictions.   
      
   Defense attorneys have argued that the killings were not premeditated.   
   Tisius, they said, intended to order the jailers into a holding cell and   
   free Vance and other inmates. Tisius’ defense team issued a video last   
   week in which Vance said he planned the escape attempt and manipulated   
   Tisius into participating.   
      
   A statement from Tisius’ legal team questioned the value of the death   
   penalty.   
      
   “We teach our preschoolers that two wrongs don’t make a right. Today, we   
   watch our adults casually dismiss such eternal guidance,” the statement   
   read, in part.   
      
   The execution was the 12th in the U.S. this year, and the third in   
   Missouri. Only Texas, with four, has executed more people than Missouri   
   this year.   
      
   Amber McLaughlin, 49, who killed a woman and dumped the body near the   
   Mississippi River in St. Louis, was put to death in January. The execution   
   was believed to be the first of a transgender woman in the U.S. Raheem   
   Taylor, 58, was executed in February for killing his live-in girlfriend   
   and her three children in 2004 in St. Louis County.   
      
   Another Missouri execution is scheduled for Aug. 1. Johnny Johnson was   
   convicted of sexually assaulting and killing a 6-year-old girl in St.   
   Louis County in 2002.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)