Missouri Executes Michael Tisius After Jurors Waver on Death Sentence - The New York Times

SKIP TO CONTENT
SECTIONS
SEARCH
U.S.
SUBSCRIBE FOR $1/WEEK
LOG IN
Missouri Executes Michael Tisius After Jurors Waver on Death Sentence
Julie Bosman
By Julie Bosman
Published June 5, 2023
Updated June 6, 2023
Give this article

The News
On Tuesday evening, the state of Missouri executed Michael Tisius, a 42-year-old who murdered two jail guards in 2000.

His case attracted international attention and pleas for clemency, especially after several jurors who had voted to sentence Mr. Tisius to death said in a petition to the governor that they now believed life imprisonment was appropriate.

Mr. Tisius’s lawyers had also argued that another juror from the sentencing trial was unable to read, a requirement under Missouri law for jury service.

In a statement, Mr. Tisius’s lawyers said that in the hours before his death, he had expressed “everlasting remorse” to the families of the men he killed and a hope that his death would bring closure.

“Today marks another sad chapter of America’s perverse fascination with state-sanctioned homicide,” they said.

Mr. Tisius was the third person to receive the death penalty in Missouri this year.

Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, said in a statement on Monday that Mr. Tisius’s case “received fair and careful review at each step in the judicial process.”

“Missouri’s judicial system provided Mr. Tisius with due process and fair proceedings for his brutal murders of two Randolph County jail guards,” he said.

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay of execution for Mr. Tisius, rejecting his lawyers’ argument that his age at the time of the crime, 19, should spare him from the death penalty. Mr. Tisius’s legal appeals have been exhausted.

That left the possibility that Mr. Parson would step in and halt the execution. A former sheriff, Mr. Parson was seen as unlikely to commute the sentence. For weeks, organizations and institutions — including the American Bar Association, the Missouri State Public Defenders, the European Union and the Catholic Church — lobbied him, arguing for clemency.

Of the jury that had voted to sentence Mr. Tisius to death in 2010, six jurors, including two alternates, have said in sworn affidavits included in the clemency petition that they would be supportive or would not object if Mr. Parson stepped in to commute the sentence to life imprisonment, rather than death.

ImageGov. Mike Parson stands behind a microphone, giving a speech in front of a maroon curtain.
Gov. Mike Parson of Missouri delivering his State of the State address in Jefferson City, Mo., in January. Credit...Jeff Roberson/Associated Press

One juror, Jason Smith, said in an interview that he was remorseful for his vote, saying that he felt that he had wronged Mr. Tisius.

At least one surviving family member of one of the murder victims supported execution: Linda Arena, the older sister of Jason Acton, one of the slain jail employees, said in an interview that she felt justice would have been served once the death penalty had been carried out.

The murders occurred in June 2000, when Mr. Tisius and Tracie Bulington entered a county jail and tried to free Roy Vance, a friend who was an inmate. During the attempt, Mr. Tisius shot and killed two jail employees, then fled.

Lawyers for Mr. Tisius had appealed for clemency, saying that he suffered abuse and neglect in his childhood, had a limited mental capacity for decision-making and was heavily influenced by the older Mr. Vance, who convinced him to carry out the plot.

Background: Public support for the death penalty has waned.
Only four states have carried out executions so far in 2023 — Missouri, Oklahoma, Florida and Texas — according to the Death Penalty Information Center. That is partly a reflection of decreasing support in the last several decades for capital punishment in the United States.

It is also a sign of the practical difficulties that some states have experienced in performing executions, whether in obtaining drugs necessary for lethal injections or carrying out executions.

Image
A road leads to an area near prison buildings with green rooftops
Mr. Tisius was transferred to a prison in Bonne Terre, Mo.Credit...David Robert Elliott for The New York Times

Why It Matters: Several jurors from the sentencing trial changed their minds about Mr. Tisius’s fate, an unusual development in a death penalty case.
Mr. Tisius’s plea for clemency raises questions that are rarely discussed during death penalty cases. Should it matter that jurors who have already sentenced a person to death now favor or accept life imprisonment, as they said in sworn affidavits sent to the governor? How should the legal system consider the trauma and remorse that jurors feel if they believe they made the wrong decision in voting for capital punishment?

There is no legal recourse for jurors in this position, so those who had reconsidered in Mr. Tisius’s case had only an emotional appeal to the governor.

The legal system “doesn’t leave room for the emotional trauma that happens to jurors later,” said Juandalynn Taylor, a visiting professor at Gonzaga University School of Law who teaches on the death penalty. She said that jurors were asking themselves: “I have voted to wipe someone off the earth — how do I deal with that?”

Julie Bosman is the Chicago bureau chief of The Times, reporting on the Midwest. She has written on the coronavirus pandemic, education, politics, law enforcement and literature. @juliebosman

A version of this article appears in print on June 6, 2023, Section A, Page 19 of the New York edition with the headline: Missouri Says Execution Will Proceed After Jurors Waver on Death Sentence. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
Give this article

Gain unlimited access to all of The Times. Now $6.25 $1 a week for your first year.
Gain unlimited access to all of The Times. Now $6.25 $1 a week for your first year.

New introductory offer:

Now $6.25 $1 a week for your first year.

VIEW OFFER
Cancel or pause anytime.
Site Index
Site Information Navigation
© 2023 The New York Times Company
NYTCoContact UsAccessibilityWork with usAdvertiseT Brand StudioYour Ad ChoicesPrivacy PolicyTerms of ServiceTerms of SaleSite MapHelpSubscriptions