KBIA

With Death of Dennis Skillicorn, Missouri Resumes Lethal-Injection Executions COLUMBIA, MISSOURI (KBIA) - Missouri this morning has carried out its first execution in four years. A death row inmate who had become what his supporters called a role model was executed just after midnight at a southeast Missouri correctional facility.

KBIA's Janet Saidi has more.

Dennis Skillicorn was one of three men convicted in the 1994 death of Richard Drummond. Drummond had stopped to help Skillicorn and two others whose car had broken down on Interstate 70

Before this morning, executions had been on hold in Missouri since 2005, while courts considered whether the state's method of lethal injection was "cruel and unusual punishment." A federal judge approved the method last year.


Dennis Skillicorn was given a lethal injection at 12-22 this morning. The time of death was 12-34 a-m. Missouri Department of Corrections spokesperson Jacqueline Lapine says the execution time was delayed by 21 minutes, because of a last-minute appeal to the state Supreme Court.

Supporters of Skillicorn, and the inmate's lawyers, worked up to the final hour for clemency in the case - claiming that since his conviction Skillicorn had turned his life around.

They credit Skillicorn with founding a magazine dedicated to victim outreach, workign with terminally ill prisoners, and with starting a 4-H group at a Missouri correctional facility, among other efforts.
About a dozen vigils took place across the state in the hours leading up to Skillicorn's execution.
But Missouri Governor Jay Nixon's office released a statement late yesterday
denying clemency and urging Missourians to remember the families of Skillicorn's victims.
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