Missouri Supreme Court rejects Dorsey request to stay execution

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Missouri Supreme Court declined Friday to stop the execution of a Mid-Missouri double murderer set to die next week.

The court overruled a motion to stay Brian Dorsey's execution. Dorsey's legal team had asked for the stay, saying the acting director of the Department of Corrections could not order an execution or appoint a death squad.

Dorsey's team had argued that only a permanent director could form an execution team.

"... Dorsey has failed to adequately show how the current acting director does not satisfy this statute and even if he did, fails to adequately show how a violation of this statute would warrant staying his execution," according to the opinion signed by the full court.

Dorsey has a case pending in Cole County on his challenge to the acting director's authority and the Supreme Court opinion says he is unlikely to prevail in that case.

Dorsey has also petitioned the governor for clemency, lining up public officials, former jailers and a Mid-Missouri sports celebrity to put pressure on the state to spare his life.

Dorsey has also sued to stop his execution in federal court.

Dorsey, 52, has an execution date set for Tuesday. He was found guilty by a Boone County jury in 2008 for shooting and killing his cousin, Sarah Bonnie, and her husband, Ben in December of 2006 at their home in New Bloomfield.

He was sentenced to two counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to death.