Missouri death row inmate, 52, is executed for killing his cousin and her husband – as he makes deathbed apology after dining on mammoth meal of TWO burgers, pizza, chicken strips and fries
Brian Dorsey was executed by the state of Missouri less than ten hours after the governor and the United States Supreme Court denied him clemency.
The 52-year-old died at 6:11 pm on Tuesday evening after being injected with a single dose of the sedative pentobarbital at the state prison in Bonne Terre.
It came after Dorsey issued a closing statement on Tuesday morning, saying: “Words cannot adequately carry the weight of my guilt and shame.”
He was also served his last meal, which consisted of two double cheeseburgers with bacon, two orders of chicken strips, two large orders of fries and a pizza with sausage, pepperoni, onion, mushrooms and extra cheese, the State Department said. corrections.
Dorsey shot his cousin Sarah and her husband Benjamin Bonnie, 28, in their Missouri home in 2006.
Republican Governor Mike Parson denied a pardon for Dorsey, despite a petition collecting statements from 72 current and former corrections officers vouching that he had been reformed.
The United States Supreme Court also refused to halt the measure after rejecting two separate appeals.
Both appeals were dismissed without comment. One person cited Dorsey’s record of good behavior since his incarceration and said he should not be put to death because he has been rehabilitated.
The other appeal stated that his life should be spared because his trial lawyers had a conflict of interest.
The pair of public defenders received a lump sum of $12,000, which gave them no incentive to invest time in his case, the appeal said.
At their recommendation, Dorsey pleaded guilty despite failing to reach an agreement with prosecutors that he would be spared the death penalty.
Dorsey murdered his cousin and her husband in their central Missouri home two days before Christmas in 2006, leaving their four-year-old daughter alone in the house.
Kirk Henderson, one of Dorsey’s attorneys, said Dorsey “has tried every day for the past 18 years to make up for the single act of violence” he committed in 2006.
Dorsey shot and killed Sarah and Benjamin Bonnie in their bed while they were staying with the couple, before stealing their belongings and trying to sell them
Governor Mike Parson on Monday rejected the clemency request that would have saved Dorsey’s life. The request included correspondence from current and former corrections officers — as well as a retired Supreme Court justice — claiming the killer had reformed.
“Executing Brian Dorsey is a senseless act of cruelty, an exercise of state power that serves no legitimate penological purpose,” Henderson said in a statement.
A small number of protesters gathered in an area near the prison shortly before the execution.
Dorsey would be the first person to be put to death in Missouri this year, following four executions in 2023.
Another man, David Hosieris scheduled for execution on June 11 for the 2009 murder of a Jefferson City woman. Nationwide, four men have been executed so far in 2024 — one each in Alabama, Texas, Georgia and Oklahoma.
Dorsey, 52, formerly of Jefferson Citywas convicted of murdering Sarah and Ben Bonnie on December 23, 2006, at their home near New Bloomfield.
Prosecutors said Dorsey had called Sarah Bonnie earlier that day to borrow money to pay two drug dealers who were at his apartment.
Dorsey went to the Bonnies’ house that evening. After they went to bed, Dorsey took a shotgun from the garage and killed them both before sexually assaulting Sarah Bonnie’s body, prosecutors said.
“The pain Dorsey has caused others can never be remedied, but carrying out Dorsey’s sentence according to Missouri law and the Court’s order will bring justice and provide closure,” the politician concluded, likely resolving the scammer’s fate sealed.
Former Missouri Supreme Court Justice Michael Wolff (pictured) and 72 current and ex-corrections officers fought to save Dorsey’s life, claiming he was born again behind bars. Wolff was the one who handed down the death penalty in 2009, but recently said that was a mistake
Police said Dorsey stole several items from the home and was trying to pay off a drug debt with some of the stolen property.
A day after the murders, Sarah Bonnie’s parents went to check on the Bonnies after they failed to show up for a family gathering.
They found the couple’s four-year-old daughter on the couch watching TV. She told her grandparents that her mother “doesn’t want to wake up.”
Dorsey surrendered to police three days after the murders.
Lawyers for Dorsey said he was suffering from drug-induced psychosis at the time of the crime. He came clean in prison, they said.
Seventy-two corrections officers were responsible for his rehabilitation in the clemency request.
“The Brian I’ve known for years can’t hurt anyone,” someone wrote in the clemency request. “The Brian I know doesn’t deserve to be executed.”
In a letter to Parson as part of the clemency petition, former Missouri Supreme Court Justice Michael Wolff wrote that he was on the court when it denied an appeal of his death sentence in 2009. He said he now knows the decision was wrong.
“Missouri Public Defenders are now not using the fixed defense fee, in recognition of the professional standard that such an arrangement presents the attorney with an inherent financial conflict of interest,” Wolff wrote.
Dorsey’s execution raised new concerns about Missouri’s single-drug protocol, which does not include provisions on the use of anesthetics. Dorsey’s attorneys describe him as obese, diabetic and a former intravenous drug user, all factors that could have made it difficult to obtain a vein to inject the deadly drug.
When that happens, a reduction procedure is sometimes necessary.
A cutdown involves an incision and then the use of forceps to pull tissue away from an internal vein.
A federal lawsuit on Dorsey’s behalf argued that without local anesthetic, he would be in so much pain that it would interfere with his right to religious freedom by preventing him from having meaningful interactions with his spiritual advisor, including performing last rites.
A settlement was reached on Saturday in which the state took unspecified steps to limit the risk of extreme pain.
The settlement did not specify the specific changes the state agreed to, including whether narcotics would be available.