Missouri executes second person this year despite efforts to stop it

By John Murphy

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    JEFFERSON CITY, Missouri (KOMU) — Convicted murderer David Hosier was executed at 6 p.m. Tuesday after Gov. Mike Parson denied his clemency request Monday. Advocates against the death penalty stood outside Parson’s office at the state Capitol Tuesday afternoon in a last-ditch effort to stop the execution.

Hosier was convicted of killing Angela Gilpin and her husband, Rodney Gilpin, at their apartment in Jefferson City in 2009. Hosier admitted that he had engaged in a romantic relationship with Angela Gilpin.

NBC News received a final statement of intent from Hosier where he maintains his innocence, despite a unanimous verdict by a jury and the Missouri Supreme Court upholding the ruling in 2019.

Elyse Max, co-director of Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty (MADP), was one of about a dozen people standing outside the governor’s office on Tuesday. She said they delivered 600 more signatures, in addition to the 6,500 signatures her organization delivered last week, to convince Parson to halt the execution.

Max stands against the governor’s track record on death penalty cases.

“Governor Parson, this will be the 11th execution on his watch and his 11th clemency denial. We know that we have executed innocent people in Missouri on his watch,” Max said. “I don’t know that there is much hope in executive clemency, but we are holding out hope. We believe in miracles, and we’re here today to talk about David and talk about his story and just to uplift his humanity.”

Chuck Lahmeyer is someone who disagrees.

“Apparently (Parson) supports the notion of execution, and so do I,” he said.

Lahmeyer stopped by the Capitol during the vigil and spoke with several protestors expressing his support for Parson’s decision to carry out Hosier’s execution.

Hosier, 69, told NBC News he is upset over the stance his lawyers, who were public defenders, took during his trial. They focused on the mental trauma Hosier experienced when his father, who was an Indiana state trooper, was killed in the line of duty in 1971. Hosier was 16 at the time.

“We have brought up a lot of the flaws that happened within the trial,” Max said.

Hosier said he wished the focus was on a lack of evidence. There were no witnesses to the murder, however, law enforcement officers in Oklahoma arrested Hosier and recovered 15 firearms and multiple rounds of ammunition in his car shortly after the victims’ bodies were discovered.

Max expressed that MADP’s efforts shine a light on the conditions of most first-degree murder trials.

“Especially uplifting the fact that every single person who is sentenced to death in Missouri is poor,” Max said. “They’re within the public defender’s system. This is a systemic issue. It’s impacting David as an individual.”

Still, Lahmayer stands by the court rulings.

“I would say if there was ever a crime that’s worthy of it, this is one of those. He killed two people in cold blood over lover’s jealousy,” he said. Similar language was used in Parson’s news release Monday as the reasoning for denying the clemency request.

MADP fundamentally advocates against the death penalty in all cases, as Max said, “David, like everyone who’s incarcerated, is more than their worst day.”

But Lahmayer, who is from the same area as the Gilpins and says he remembers the crime well, said sometimes life in prison isn’t enough.

“Having to give up your life is the toughest thing you can do, and I believe this is one of those cases that warrants it,” he said.

Hosier was moved from the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre to a hospital in May and diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, which causes an irregular heart rate.

Max said his health conditions should affect his execution status.

“He’s just very obviously not a future threat to anybody and could live out his days in Potosi (near Bonne Terre), perfectly fine being part of that community,” Max said.

The Associated Press reported Tuesday that Hosier “accepted his fate” in the hours leading up to his execution.

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