A Missouri inmate who killed his neighbor 25 years ago was to be executed early Wednesday after the U.S. Supreme Court and the state’s governor denied appeals to spare his life.
Walter Timothy Storey was scheduled to die at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday for killing a woman inside her apartment in the St. Louis suburb of St. Charles. After a Missouri-record 10 executions in 2014, it would be the state’s first this year.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon turned down Storey’s bid for clemency around 8 p.m. Tuesday, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court also denied his appeal arguing that the lethal drug could cause a painful death. Four justices — Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan — would have granted the stay.
Missouri obtains its execution drug, pentobarbital, from an unnamed compounding pharmacy, and prison officials refuse to disclose details about how or if it is tested. Storey’s attorney argues that the secrecy makes it impossible to know if the barbiturate will quickly work or cause an unconstitutionally painful death.
–
The Missouri Supreme Court tossed the conviction, citing concerns about ineffective assistance of counsel and “egregious” errors committed by Kenny Hulshof, who was with the Missouri attorney general’s office at the time and handled the prosecution. Hulshof was later a congressman and a candidate for governor.
Storey was tried again in 1997, and sentenced again to death. That conviction was also overturned, this time over a procedural error by the judge. Storey was sentenced to death a third time in 1999.
Herndon said Storey is remorseful for his crimes and has spent “thousands of hours” working in a restorative justice program in prison, trying to help crime victims.
