Death Penalty News

Four jurors and two alternates from the 2010 trial of Michael Tisius have said in affidavits that they would support clemency in his case.  Mr. Tisius is scheduled to be executed in Missouri on June 6, 2023.  In his clemency petition, and in interviews with the New York Times, the jurors said that mitigating evidence that was not presented at trial would have altered their sentencing decisions.  RELATED | Missouri Executes Michael Tisius After Jurors Waver on Death Sentence Lawyers for Mr. Tisius contacted jurors and shared details of the abuse and neglect he experienced during childhood, his mental impairments, his remorse for the crime, and his record of good behavior in prison. “I believe that people can change and should get second chances,” one juror said. 

On Tuesday evening, the state of Missouri executed Michael Tisius, a 42-year-old who murdered two jail guards in 2000. The execution was carried out at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, Missouri.  Tisius, 42, died via lethal injection. He was declared dead by 6:10 p.m. Tisius made a written final statement in the days leading up to his execution: " I am holding tightly to my faith. It’s all I have to take with me. I am sorry it had to come to this in this way. I wish I could have made things right while I was still here. I really did try to become a better man. I really tried hard to give as much as I could to as many as I could. I tried to forgive others as I wish to be forgiven. And I pray that God will forgive those who condemn me. Just as the forgave those who condemned Him. I am sorry. And not because I am at the end. But because I truly am sorry. And I need to say that I love you Truffle. Seacrest Out! " Michael Tisius' case a...

ST LOUIS (AP) – A federal appeals court in the United States (US) has vacated a stay of execution for a Missouri inmate who is scheduled to be executed tomorrow for his role in the deaths of two jailers. Michael Tisius, 42, was sentenced to death after being convicted of killing Randolph County jailers Jason Acton and Leon Egley during a failed escape attempt. US District Judge Stephen R Bough issued the stay on Wednesday and ordered an evidentiary hearing after Tisius’ attorneys argued that a juror in his 2010 resentencing was illiterate, which is not allowed under state law. On Friday, the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit said the lower court did not have jurisdiction to order the stay. An attorney for Tisius Keith O’Connor, said his team will appeal the decision, the Kansas City Star reported.

42-year-old Michael Tisius, who was scheduled to die by lethal injection on Tuesday, has received a stay of execution from a federal judge after discovering last month that one of the jurors on Tisius’s case may have been unable to read or write. Originally presented and dismissed at the state level, Tisius’s legal team again filed to federal courts where today U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough granted Tisius a stay of execution until a hearing on the juror’s literacy can be held. The juror could not review key pieces of evidence presented in the court such as letters and expert reports, according to Tisius’s legal team.  An illiterate or non-native English speaker may not serve on a jury under Missouri law.

Lawyers for Michael Tisius say his June 6 execution should be stopped after they discovered a juror could not read and was therefore unqualified to sit on the jury. Attorneys for Michael Tisius — scheduled for execution June 6 at a prison in eastern Missouri — say a man who served on the jury was not qualified and Tisius’ death sentence should be vacated. Information about the juror surfaced late last month and led Tisius’ legal team to file a petition requesting the Missouri Supreme Court re-sentence him to life in prison instead of the death penalty.  Tisius, 42, was convicted in the deaths of Jason Acton and Leon Egley. The two Randolph County jailers were fatally shot on June 22, 2000, in a failed effort to free another prisoner, according to The Star’s archives.  The 2001 trial took place in Boone County. During post-conviction proceedings, the court found evidence of prosecutorial misconduct and granted him a new sentencing hearing. In July 2010, the death penalty was ag...