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2023-06-08 03:25:01 UTC
Justice is done. Now kill 100 blacks to balance the scales.
BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) A Missouri man who shot and killed two jailersnearly 23 years ago during a failed bid to help an acquaintance escape
from a rural jail was executed Tuesday evening.
Michael Tisius, 42, received a lethal injection of pentobarbital at the
state prison in Bonne Terre and was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m.,
authorities said. He was convicted of the June 22, 2000, killings of Leon
Egley and Jason Acton at the small Randolph County Jail.
Tisius breathed hard a few times as the drug was administered, then fell
silent. His spiritual adviser, Melissa Potts-Bowers, was in the room with
him. Because the execution chamber is surrounded by soundproof glass, its
not known what they were saying to each other.
In a final written statement, Tisius said he tried hard to become a
better man, and he expressed remorse for his crimes.
I am sorry, he wrote. And not because I am at the end. But because I
truly am sorry.
Tisius lawyers had urged the U.S. Supreme Court to block the execution,
alleging in appeals that a juror at a sentencing hearing was illiterate,
in violation of Missouri law. The court rejected that motion Tuesday
afternoon.
The Supreme Court previously turned aside another argument that Tisius
should be spared because he was just 19 at the time of the killings. A
2005 Supreme Court ruling bars executions of those under 18 when their
crime occurred, but attorneys for Tisius had argued that even at 19, when
the killings occurred, Tisius should have had his sentence commuted to
life in prison without parole.
Advocates for Tisius had said he was largely neglected as a child and was
homeless by his early teens. His path to the death chamber began in 1999
when, as an 18-year-old, he was jailed on a misdemeanor charge of pawning
a rented stereo system.
In June 2000, Tisius was housed on that charge at the same county jail in
Huntsville with inmate Roy Vance. Tisius was about to be released, and
court records show the men discussed a plan in which Tisius, once he was
out, would help Vance escape.
Just after midnight on June 22, 2000, Tisius went to the jail accompanied
by Vances girlfriend, Tracie Bulington. They told Egley and Acton that
they were there to deliver cigarettes to Vance. The jailers didnt know
that Tisius had a pistol.
At trial, Bulington testified that she looked up and saw Tisius with the
gun drawn, then watched as he shot and killed Acton. When Egley
approached, Tisius shot him, too. Both officers were unarmed.
Tisius found keys at the dispatch area and tried to open Vances cell, but
couldnt. When Egley grabbed Bulingtons leg, Tisius shot him several more
times.
Tisius and Bulington fled but their car broke down later that day in
Kansas. They were arrested in Wathena, Kansas, about 130 miles (210
kilometers) west of Huntsville. Tisius confessed to the crimes.
Sid Conklin, now presiding commissioner of Randolph County, was a Missouri
State Highway Patrol officer who investigated the killings in 2000.
Conklin said the deaths of the two young jailers both in their 30s
still haunt the community.
I hope this brings closure for all citizens of Randolph County, said
Conklin, who witnessed the execution.
Another now-retired highway patrol investigator, Randy King, described the
jailers as good, everyday people trying to make a living.
I pray for the guys (Tisius) soul, but its been 23 years and its time
for justice to be served, King said. He also witnessed the execution.
Bulington and Vance are serving life sentences on murder convictions.
Defense attorneys have argued that the killings were not premeditated.
Tisius, they said, intended to order the jailers into a holding cell and
free Vance and other inmates. Tisius defense team issued a video last
week in which Vance said he planned the escape attempt and manipulated
Tisius into participating.
A statement from Tisius legal team questioned the value of the death
penalty.
We teach our preschoolers that two wrongs dont make a right. Today, we
watch our adults casually dismiss such eternal guidance, the statement
read, in part.
The execution was the 12th in the U.S. this year, and the third in
Missouri. Only Texas, with four, has executed more people than Missouri
this year.
Amber McLaughlin, 49, who killed a woman and dumped the body near the
Mississippi River in St. Louis, was put to death in January. The execution
was believed to be the first of a transgender woman in the U.S. Raheem
Taylor, 58, was executed in February for killing his live-in girlfriend
and her three children in 2004 in St. Louis County.
Another Missouri execution is scheduled for Aug. 1. Johnny Johnson was
convicted of sexually assaulting and killing a 6-year-old girl in St.
Louis County in 2002.