Death row inmate executed despite appeals and concerns over 'cutdown' procedure
Kit Roberts
Featured Image Credit: Jeremy Weis/AFP via Getty/Joe Raedle/Newsmakers via Getty
A death row prisoner in Missouri has been executed despite appeals and testimonies from prison officers in his favor.
Brian Dorsey, 52, was killed by lethal injection at the state prison in Bonne Terre, Missouri on Tuesday (April 9).
Dorsey was convicted of killing his cousin Sarah and her husband Ben Bonnie on December 23, 2006 at the couple's home.
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According to prosecutors, Dorsey had phoned Sarah the day of her murder requesting money to pay off a drug dealer.
Later that evening he went to the couple's home and killed them both with a shotgun he took from their garage.
Dorsey then took some items from the home in an attempt to pay off his drug debt.
He turned himself in three days after the attack and was sentenced to death for each murder, court records show.
Since then, Dorsey lodged appeals with the US Supreme Court as well as making a request for clemency to Governor Mike Parson.
Abraham Bonowitz, the executive director for Death Penalty Action told The Mirror: "Clemency is supposed to be about whether a person is worthy of mercy, not a retrial of the facts of the case."
He explained that Dorsey had become a trusted person in the prison, even working as the prison's barber. This required a high level of trust from prison staff as it meant he would be handling sharp objects.
Appeals focussed on Dorsey's behavior in prison and his rehabilitation, as well as raising concerns about the protocol for executions in Missouri.
This included drawing attention to Dorsey's obesity and his history using intravenous drugs, both of which would complicate finding a vein and carrying out the sentence as painlessly as possible, leaving the possibility of an invasive 'cutdown' procedure. This involves using forceps to pull away tissue to expose an interior vein.
A petition - signed by over 70 correctional officers - argued his sentence should be commuted to life in prison due to his good behavior.
However, both his appeals and request for clemency were declined.
In a statement, the governor said he rejected a request for clemency because Dorsey 'punished his loving family for helping him in a time of need' and that 'Missouri law and the Court’s order will deliver justice and provide closure'.
Before he was executed, Dorsey apologised to both Sarah and Ben's families, and thanked everyone who had fought for his clemency.
A final written statement was provided to CNN by his attorneys.
It read: “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 totally, deeply, overwhelmingly sorry. 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.”
“To my family, friends, and all of those that tried to prevent this, I love you! I am grateful for you.
“I have peace in my heart in large part because of you and I thank you. To all those on ALL sides of this sentence, I carry no ill will or anger, only acceptance and understanding.”