Sentenced to death for the murders of his cousin and her husband, Brian Dorsey is due to be executed this Tuesday, April 9 in Missouri, in the United States. The governor refused to grant clemency, despite the support of more than 70 corrections officials who believe the inmate’s life should be spared.
He killed his cousin and her husband, leaving their 4-year-old daughter an orphan, and was convicted and sentenced to death. However, Brian Dorsey seems to be a popular character.
While he is to be executed by lethal injection this Tuesday, April 9, could the prisoner escape the death penalty? This is what is asked a petitionlaunched to the governor of Missouri, and signed online by some 4,800 supporters, including 70 guards from the prison where he is detained.
A model inmate
The latter believe that Brian Dorsey has reinstated himself and denounce an unfair conviction. They describe a model inmate, who works as a prison barber, and say his disciplinary record is impeccable in the 17 years he has been on death row. By putting forward these arguments, they are demanding that his execution be canceled for the inmate.
Request that the governor of Missouri rejected, saying that “The pain Dorsey has caused others can never be undone, but serving his sentence in accordance with Missouri law and the Court’s order will provide justice and closure.”.
In a “psychotic state”
The crime took place two days before Christmas, in 2006. Threatened by drug traffickers to whom he owed money, Brian Dorsey was staying with his cousin and her husband. It’s in a “psychotic state”, under the influence of crack, which the inmate had shot at the culprit, before stealing jewelry, a cell phone and firearms to pay off his drug debt. When he learned that the police were looking for him, he surrendered and cooperated, summarizes the Washington Post.
An open question in this case is whether the Eighth Amendment protects people who have been rehabilitated from execution, Brian Dorsey’s lawyers argued in their latest bid to stay the execution. This is scheduled for 6 p.m. local time this Tuesday.