JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (First Alert 4) – Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe denied clemency in the first execution of his tenure.
Missouri is moving forward with an execution on Tuesday evening. Lance Shockley is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. in Bonne Terre. He’s convicted of murdering Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Carl Dewayne Graham Jr. in 2005.
Shockley’s is the first execution to take place since Kehoe took office as governor. Monday morning, Kehoe denied appeals to stop Shockley’s execution. In an interview with Gray Media’s Missouri Capitol Bureau, Kehoe reinforced his stance to be hard on crime.
“Folks in our state need to know that when you take someone’s life, it’s serious, but when you take someone that is a public safety member, a law enforcement officer, we just won’t allow that here in the state of Missouri,” Kehoe said.
Kehoe faces criticism from anti-death penalty groups for his decision. They call into question his pro-life position, which he ran for office on.
“We had understood through your announcements that you are a prolife individual serving the best interest of people in our state in that capacity, and quite frankly, the action that you took at this point to say that you would not exercise clemency is exactly the opposite of that,” said Jeff Stack, anti-death penalty activist.
However, Kehoe continues to defend his pro-life stance: “I’ve said forever that I’m a defender of innocent life. Those young babies that have never had the chance to make any decisions that unfortunately become the victim of abortions, I’ll always stick up for that life as long as I’m in this office and anywhere else. I think that’s much different than somebody who murdered in cold blood a law enforcement officer, a hero in our state.”
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