Dorsey executed on Tuesday night following SCOTUS denial

BONNE TERRE, Mo. (KMIZ)

Convicted murderer Brian Dorsey was executed on Tuesday evening, Missouri Department of Corrections spokeswoman Karen Pojmann stated in a news conference.

Officials were given the OK to administer the lethal injection to Dorsey at 6:01 p.m. He was dead by 6:11 p.m.

The United States Supreme Court on Tuesday denied Dorsey's requests to delay his execution, according to his attorneys. Federal public defender Kirk Henderson said that dozens of people supported sparing Dorsey's life.

"Executing Brian Dorsey is a pointless cruelty, an exercise of the State’s power that serves no legitimate penological purpose," Henderson said on Tuesday. "My heart goes out to the many family members and friends who love Brian, and to the dedicated men and women of the Missouri Department of Corrections, who have seen the goodness he is committed to bringing to the world."

A warrant for Dorsey's execution started at 6 p.m. Department of Corrections spokeswoman Karen Pojmann said a dozen witnesses attended the execution in support of the Bonnies. Eleven of them were family members and one was a friend. Six people served as witnesses in support of Dorsey.

"Brian Dorsey punished his loving family for helping him in a time of need," Gov. Mike Parson said in a statement that was given to media at Tuesday's press conference and read aloud by acting DOC director Trevor Foley. "His cousins invited him into their home, where he was surrounded by family and friends, then gave him a place to stay. Dorsey repaid them with cruelty, inhumane violence, and murder. The pain Dorsey brought to other can never be rectified, but carrying out Dorsey’s sentence according to Missouri law and the Court’s order delivered justice and provided closure."

Dorsey was found guilty on Nov. 10, 2008, of two counts of first-degree murder for the killings of his cousin Sarah Bonnie and her husband Ben in Callaway County. Deputies found the Bonnies dead in their New Bloomfield-area home on Dec. 24, 2006 after family members did not see them at a family party. Law enforcement said that Dorsey killed the two the night before with a shotgun, raped Sarah Bonnie and stole things from their home to pay a drug debt he owed.

In an April 7 written statement to the public provided by the DOC, Dorsey said he was "truly, deeply, overwhelmingly sorry" to his family and Ben's family for the murders.

"To all of the family and loved ones I share with Sarah to all of the surviving family and loved ones of Ben, I am truly, deeply, overwhelmingly sorry," Dorsey said. "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," the statement continues. "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 side of this sentence, I carry no ill will or anger, only acceptance and understanding."

Two busloads of people arrived at the ERDCC public staging area around 5:40 p.m. near the parking lot to oppose the death penalty as part of a planned protest by Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. About three dozen people stood in another section of the staging area with large pictures of Sarah and Ben Bonnie.

Dorsey's attorneys have pushed courts in the last year to either change Dorsey's sentence to life in prison without parole or delay his execution. Recent filings with the U.S. Supreme Court claim Dorsey has been rehabilitated by his time in prison, and an execution would violate his Eighth Amendment rights. Henderson pointed out in a Monday filing that many people, including workers at the prison where Dorsey stayed, have spoken to Dorsey's rehabilitation in prison. That includes his lack of any disciplinary records while in prison for the murders.

"When a death-sentenced person has spent years on death row with the kind of record achieved by Mr. Dorsey, the penological goal of rehabilitation has been satisfied and the constitutionally required goals of retribution and deterrence are not met by an execution," Henderson wrote.

The Attorney General's Office said Dorsey intentionally waited until close to the execution to make the claim in hopes of getting a delay. Gregory Goodwin, chief counsel of the Public Protection Section, said Dorsey could have made the claims months or even years ago.

"Dorsey purports to craft a rule that overturns our well-established system where a jury must find aggravating factors, consider whether there are mitigating factors and, if so, whether the mitigating factors outweigh the aggravating factors, and then consider whether mercy should be given," Goodwin wrote. "In place of that system, Dorsey proposes that, in the days before an execution, this Court should become a roving commission, searching high and low for evidence about whether a defendant has 'changed.' That sort of system imposes severe costs on victims, litigants, and society."

Pleas for clemency

In a last ditch effort, four cousins of both Dorsey and Sarah Bonnie presented 2,000 additional signatures to the governor asking for clemency just hours before the scheduled execution.

Gov. Mike Parson denied Dorsey's request for clemency on Monday, saying he violated the trust of his family with the killings. Anti-death penalty activists are planning demonstrations across the state, including in Bonne Terre.

Backed up by three of her cousins, Gail Thompson said her family does not need to experience any more death. Thompson said Dorsey would have never committed the crime if he was in his right mind.

"We are not so blinded by our love for him that we don't understand that he was convicted of committing a terrible crime against someone we love just as dearly as we love Brian," Thompson said. "But nor are we capable to rewrite history and convince ourselves that Brian still isn't the same loving, compassionate, helpful person he always was."

Bills aim to weaken death penalty

Members of the Missouri House of Representatives general laws committee will vote on a bill Tuesday evening that would weaken the death penalty. If passed, the law would prevent a judge from sentencing someone to death if a jury is in deadlock.

As co-director of Missourians for Abolishing the Death Penalty, Elyse Max supports this and other laws introduced to weaken or abolish the death penalty. Max said these bills get bipartisan support despite naysayers.

"A lot of people are against abolishing the death penalty because they're concerned about victims and victims who are impacted by first degree murder," Max said. "And what we saw today with the Dorsey family is that it is just keeping cycles of trauma on families for decades after a crime happens."

There are about 10 people left on Missouri's death row, but new death sentences are rare. Only once in the past nine years has someone been sentenced to death in Missouri.