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Missouri executes Earl Ringo Jr after rejecting concerns over drugs used Missouri executes Earl Ringo Jr after rejecting concerns over drugs used
(about 5 hours later)
A Missouri inmate has been put to death Wednesday for killing two people during a restaurant robbery in 1998.A Missouri inmate has been put to death Wednesday for killing two people during a restaurant robbery in 1998.
Earl Ringo Jr, 40, and an accomplice killed delivery driver Dennis Poyser and manager trainee JoAnna Baysinger at a Ruby Tuesday restaurant in Columbia in the early hours of 4 July 1998.Earl Ringo Jr, 40, and an accomplice killed delivery driver Dennis Poyser and manager trainee JoAnna Baysinger at a Ruby Tuesday restaurant in Columbia in the early hours of 4 July 1998.
The Department of Corrections said Ringo was executed at 12.22am by lethal injection and pronounced dead at 12.31am.The Department of Corrections said Ringo was executed at 12.22am by lethal injection and pronounced dead at 12.31am.
Courts and Governor Jay Nixon had refused to halt the execution over concerns raised by Ringo’s attorneys, who, among other things, questioned Missouri’s use of a pre-execution sedative, midazolam. Ringo’s last words were a quote from the Quran that expresses belief and wishes for after death. He wiggled his feet as the process began, breathed deeply a few times, then closed his eyes, all in a matter of seconds. The Department of Corrections said Ringo was executed by lethal injection and pronounced dead at 12.31am.
Attorneys argued the drug could have left Ringo unable to express any pain or suffering during the process. Courts and Governor Jay Nixon had refused to halt the execution over concerns raised by Ringo’s attorneys, who, among other things, questioned Missouri’s use of a sedative, midazolam. In the end, Ringo declined to take any sedative, including midazolam, the Corrections Department said.
Midazolam has come under scrutiny after it was used in problematic executions earlier this year in Ohio, Oklahoma and Arizona. In each case witnesses said the inmates gasped after their executions began and continued to fight for air before being pronounced dead.Midazolam has come under scrutiny after it was used in problematic executions earlier this year in Ohio, Oklahoma and Arizona. In each case witnesses said the inmates gasped after their executions began and continued to fight for air before being pronounced dead.
A clemency petition to Nixon had also cited concerns about the fact that Ringo was convicted and sentenced to death by an all-white jury.A clemency petition to Nixon had also cited concerns about the fact that Ringo was convicted and sentenced to death by an all-white jury.
Ringo admitted to the robbery but claimed the shootings were in self-defense. He was convicted in 1999 and sentenced to death. When the case came to trial, 163 people formed the pool from which the final jury would be drawn. Only four were black.
An accomplice, Quentin Jones, of Louisville, Kentucky, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison, having been spared the death penalty when he agreed to testify against Ringo Of those four, only one was asked questions to ascertain whether she was eligible to serve on the jury, and even she was struck out by the judge. That left a panel of 12 white jurors, together with a white prosecutor and a white judge, sitting in judgment over a black defendant.
The racial disparity in Ringo’s prosecution chimes with a general statistical imbalance in Missouri’s criminal justice system. Black people are five times more likely to be incarcerated in the state than people who are white.
St Louis University law school has been conducting research specifically on Missouri’s practice of the death penalty in the modern era with the assistance of an expert in this area, Professor Ray Paternoster. The preliminary results of the study have found that murder convictions are three times more likely to end with a death sentence in Missouri in cases, like Ringo’s, where the defendant is black and the victim white.
Such cases make up between 5 and 6% of all murders in Missouri since 1977, yet constitute about 25% of death sentences since that date. Three of the past nine executions that have taken place in Missouri over the past year have involved the same black defendant-white victim disparity.
Ringo’s attorneys had asked a federal appeals court to postpone the execution until a hearing over Missouri’s use of midazolam. Attorney Richard Sindel claimed that Missouri’s use of midazolam essentially violated its own protocol, which provides for pentobarbital as the lone execution drug.Ringo’s attorneys had asked a federal appeals court to postpone the execution until a hearing over Missouri’s use of midazolam. Attorney Richard Sindel claimed that Missouri’s use of midazolam essentially violated its own protocol, which provides for pentobarbital as the lone execution drug.
St Louis Public Radio reported that Missouri administered midazolam to all nine inmates put to death since November 2013. Corrections department spokesman David Owen said midazolam “is used to relieve the offender’s level of anxiety” and was not part of the actual execution process. Officials in Missouri have indicated that they have used pentobarbital as a single lethal injection in the nine executions that have been carried out since last November. The director of the department of corrections, George Lombardi, stated under oath that midazolam would not be used even were pentobarbital unavailable.
But last week St Louis Public Radio revealed that contrary to that statement, Missouri has used midazolam in combination with pentobarbital in all its executions this year, in quantities that would induce a deep coma in the inmate or even stop them breathing. On the back of that revelation, Ringo’s lawyers have submitted court filings that have accused top officials of committing perjury. “Lawyers for the state have submitted highly misleading pleadings and false claims in various courts about Missouri’s administration of executions,” the complaint says.
The department of corrections has denied any deception, insisting that it has used the midazolam only to reduce the anxiety of a prisoner going into the death chamber and not as part of the execution procedure itself.
The execution was one of two scheduled for Wednesday in the US. Texas was to execute Willie Trottie later in the day for killing his common-law wife and her brother in 1993.The execution was one of two scheduled for Wednesday in the US. Texas was to execute Willie Trottie later in the day for killing his common-law wife and her brother in 1993.
Trottie’s execution would be Texas’s eighth in 2014. Florida has performed seven executions in 2014 and all other states have a combined six.