Dorsey asks U.S. Supreme Court to spare his life a week before execution

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Brian Dorsey is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court again to stop his pending execution in less than a week.

Dorsey's legal team appealed to the court Monday to stop his execution, which is scheduled for next Tuesday. They claim the flat fee paid to his public defenders violated Dorsey's rights because such fee structures lead to inadequate representation. The filing also says Dorsey's legal team did not bring mitigating circumstances to the jury, such as Dorsey's drug-abuse-related mental illness at the time of the killings.

Dorsey was found guilty by a Boone County jury in 2008 for two counts of first-degree murder and he was sentenced to death. He was found guilty of killing his cousin, Sarah Bonnie, and her husband, Ben, in December 2006 at their New Bloomfield home.

Dozens of corrections officers have asked Gov. Mike Parson to spare Dorsey's life, so far to no avail.

On Tuesday a state court rejected Dorsey's challenge of his execution that claimed the Department of Corrections' acting director does not have the authority to appoint an execution team. The judge in the case ruled that a circuit court couldn't stop the execution and that the matter should be heard by the Missouri Supreme Court.

"We believe that Mr. Dorsey has a strong claim that the process related to his April 9 execution overseen by an unvetted Acting Director is contrary to Missouri constitutional and statutory law," Joe Welling, an attorney for Dorsey, said in a written statement. "We will ask the Missouri Supreme Court to stay Mr. Dorsey’s execution and address this important legal issue, as the circuit court directed.”