Urgent Action- USA: MISSOURI’S FIRST EXECUTION OF 2025 IMMINENT

Lance Shockley is scheduled to be executed in Missouri on 14 October 2025 for the murder in 2005 of a police officer. The judge sentenced him to death after the jury could not decide. Evidence of misconduct by the jury foreperson was inadequately challenged by the defence. Various judges on the state Supreme Court, the US Court of Appeals, and the US Supreme Court have argued that the claim of inadequate legal representation is compelling, but Lance Shockley’s ability to pursue it has been curtailed by the Court of Appeals. We call on the Governor to commute this death sentence.

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Dear Governor, I urge you to commute Lance Shockley’s death sentence. I am in no way seeking to downplay the serious nature of the 2005 crime – the murder of a police officer who was investigating a fatal drink-driving accident. In contravention of the trial judge’s specific order to jurors to avoid certain materials while deliberating on the case, the foreperson of the jury – whose own son was a police officer – shared with other jurors a “fictionalized autobiography” he had authored about the revenge murder of a man responsible for a fatal drink-driving accident who had “escaped justice” in the courts. The defence lawyer had failed to ask about the book’s contents before its author was selected to sit on the jury and did not take the opportunity to interview jurors in support of a motion for a new trial when the episode emerged after the jury had voted to convict. Lance Shockley was blocked from pursuing his claim of ineffectiveness of counsel in the Eighth Circuit because it denied him a “certificate of appealability” (COA). In at least four other Circuits he would have been granted a COA. Dissenting against the US Supreme Court’s refusal to address an “entrenched circuit split” that has “significant consequences”, two Justices wrote that the trial lawyer appeared to have been constitutionally ineffective, but that the Eighth Circuit’s refusal to grant a COA was depriving Lance Shockley of the ability to pursue his claim. Lance Shockley was sentenced to death even though the jury was unable to decide upon punishment. Under an unusual state law criticized by former Missouri judges who – citing statistical evidence – argued that it promotes “disparity in sentencing outcomes” and arbitrariness, the trial judge took the decision himself. I note that the evidence against Lance Shockley was entirely circumstantial, which coupled with concerns on tainted jury deliberations renders this case troubling. His efforts to have modern DNA testing of crime scene evidence have so far been denied. I urge you to consider the international safeguard prohibiting the imposition of the death penalty when there is any “room for an alternative explanation of the facts”. I appeal to you to halt Lance Shockley’s execution and to commute his death sentence. Yours sincerely,
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Urgent Action- USA: MISSOURI’S FIRST EXECUTION OF 2025 IMMINENT

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