US Supreme Court Won’t Halt Execution of Missouri Death Row Inmate Brian Dorsey

Brian Dorsey at the Potosi Correctional Center, Washington County, Mo. Jeremy Weis/Federal Public Defender via AP

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to intervene in the execution of a Missouri death row inmate for double homicide more than 15 years ago.

Brian Dorsey is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Tuesday evening after the high court declined to take up two appeals he filed. There were no Supreme Court justice dissents that were made public.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson confirmed on Monday that the state would move ahead with his death sentence and rejected a request for clemency. His office said that his execution is the “appropriate and legal sentence for his heinous crimes.”

The inmate was convicted in the 2006 slayings of his cousin and her husband, Sarah Bonnie and Ben Bonnie, in Callaway County while their 4-year-old daughter was in the home.

Mr. Dorsey went to the Bonnies’ home that night. After they went to bed, Mr. Dorsey took a shotgun from the garage and killed both of them before abusing Sarah Bonnie’s body, prosecutors said. Police said Mr. Dorsey stole several items from the home and tried to pay off a drug debt with some of the stolen goods.

“Brian Dorsey punished his loving family for helping him in a time of need,” Mr. Parson said in his statement Monday, making note of why he was sentenced to death. “The pain Dorsey brought to others can never be rectified, but carrying out Dorsey’s sentence according to Missouri law and the Court’s order will deliver justice and provide closure,” he added.

One of his appeals to the Supreme Court focuses on Mr. Dorsey’s record of good behavior since his incarceration, while another appeal to the high court said that his life should be spared because his lawyers had a conflict of interest in the case. The public defenders were paid a $12,000 flat fee that provided them with no incentive to invest time in his case, the appeal claimed.

On their recommendation, Mr. Dorsey pleaded guilty despite having no agreement with prosecutors that he would be spared the death penalty, it contended.

A day after the killings, Sarah Bonnie’s parents went to check on the Bonnies after they failed to show up for a family gathering. They found the couple’s 4-year-old daughter on the couch watching TV. She told her grandparents that her mother “won’t wake up.”

Mr. Dorsey surrendered to police three days after the killings.

Attorneys for Mr. Dorsey said he was suffering from drug-induced psychosis at the time of the crime. They noted that he has become clean while in prison.

Clemency Petition

Several corrections officers said that Mr. Dorsey has since been rehabilitated while in prison. “The Brian I have known for years could not hurt anyone,” one wrote in the clemency petition. “The Brian I know does not deserve to be executed.”

After he failed to appeal his death sentence, the Missouri Supreme Court issued an execution warrant for Mr. Dorsey in December of last year. He appealed to higher courts on grounds that his sentencing and conviction violated the Constitution’s Sixth Amendment.

Former Missouri Supreme Court Justice Michael Wolff wrote to the Missouri governor that he was on the panel that denied his appeal and said the prior decision was wrong. He appeared to agree with his lawyers’ arguments that the public defenders in the case had a conflict of interest.

“Missouri Public Defenders now do not use the flat fee for defense in recognition of the professional standard that such an arrangement gives the attorney an inherent financial conflict of interest,” Mr. Wolff wrote.

An attorney for Mr. Dorsey said that his execution would be devastating because a “wealth of information” allegedly shows that Mr. Dorsey is “uniquely deserving of mercy.”

“Brian has spent every day of his time in prison trying to make amends for his crime, and dozens of correctional officers have attested to his remorse, transformation, and commitment to service. Brian’s unprecedented support, and his irrefutable evidence of redemption, are precisely the circumstances for which clemency is designed,” attorney Megan Crane said in a statement to several news outlets.

Family Responds

The petition for clemency was backed by some members of the victims’ families, but other members said he deserved the death penalty. Mr. Dorsey, one of the family members told CNN, committed the “ultimate betrayal” when he murdered his cousin and her husband.

“Not only did Jade lose her parents but we also lost a daughter and son, sister and brother, aunt and uncle, and a great aunt and great uncle to so many,” the statement from Sarah Bonnie’s family said.

“They were loved so deeply by anyone that knew them,” it continued. “All of these years of pain and suffering we finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Brian will get the justice that Sarah and Ben have deserved for so long.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.