Missouri AG Calls for Return of Gas Chamber
Missouri AG Calls for Return of Gas Chamber
“The Missouri death penalty statute has been, in my opinion, unnecessarily entangled in the courts for over a decade,” complained Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster, expressing his frustration over the Missouri Supreme Court’s refusal to set execution dates until lethal injection issues are resolved.
Those issues include the unavailability of the necessary lethal injection drugs and court battles over how to execute prisoners without them. Koster’s solution: bring back the gas chamber.
In court filings and interviews, Koster noted that Missouri law permits execution by lethal injection and the gas chamber. Between 1938 and 1965, Missouri executed 38 men and one woman in a gas chamber at the Missouri State Penitentiary, but that prison was decommissioned a decade ago.
Missouri abolished its death penalty in 1965 but re-enacted capital punishment by lethal injection in 1989. Since then, the state has executed 68 men by lethal injection, but has executed just two people since 2005, due to growing death penalty challenges and concerns.
Missouri uses the same three-drug cocktail for executions as other death penalty states. Those drugs are no longer being made available for executions, however, forcing Missouri and other states to scramble for solutions.
Koster’s solution would require the additional expenses of building a new gas chamber. Koster bristles at suggestions that the gas chamber constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
“The premeditated murder of an innocent Missourian is cruel and unusual punishment,” said Koster. “The lawful implementation of the death penalty, following a fair and reasoned jury trial, is not.”
Source: Associated Press