Missourian executed for killing his cousin and her spouse in 2006

A man from Missouri has been executed on Tuesday for murdering his cousin and her husband almost 20 years ago. They were left alone at home and their four-year-old daughter was not hurt.

Brian Dorsey, 52, died at 6:11 pm after getting one shot of a sedative called pentobarbital at the state prison in Bonne Terre, according to Karen Pojmann, who works for the Missouri Department of Corrections. This was the first time someone was put to death in Missouri this year. It happened after four people were executed in 2023. It happened soon after the US Supreme Court said no to the inmate’s last attempts to stop it.

Dorsey breathed in deeply when the drug went in, then breathed quickly and not very deeply. At one time, he lifted his head off the pillow and blinked very forcefully. After a few seconds, everything stopped moving. A religious counselor sitting beside the hospital bed kept talking. He was speaking unclearly because the room is soundproof.

Dorsey said he was sorry for the killings in his last speech.

Dorsey said in a statement that words cannot fully express how guilty and ashamed he feels.

Dorsey, who used to live in Jefferson City, Missouri, was found guilty of murdering Sarah and Ben Bonnie on December 23, 2006, at their house close to New Bloomfield. Prosecutors said that Dorsey called Sarah Bonnie earlier that day to borrow money to pay some drug dealers who were at his apartment.

Dorsey visited the Bonnies’ home that evening. After they went to sleep, Dorsey got a gun from the garage and killed both of them. Then he sexually assaulted Sarah Bonnie’s body, prosecutors said. The police said that Dorsey took things from the house and attempted to use some of the stolen things to pay for drugs.

The day after the murders, Sarah Bonnie’s parents went to see the Bonnies because they didn’t come to a family event. They saw the couple’s little girl, who is four years old, sitting on the couch watching TV. She told her grandparents that her mother is not waking up. Dorsey turned himself in to the police in December. On the 26th of that year.

Dorsey’s execution caused worries about Missouri’s way of giving lethal injections, which doesn’t include using anesthetics. Dorsey’s lawyers said he was very overweight, had diabetes, and used to take drugs through a needle. These things might have made it hard to find a vein to inject the deadly drug. When that happens, we may need to do a cutdown procedure.

A cutdown is when a small cut is made and then a tool is used to pull tissue away from a vein inside the body. A lawsuit was filed for Dorsey because he could be in a lot of pain without medicine. This could stop him from practicing his religion and getting help from his spiritual adviser.

On Saturday, an agreement was made that the state will take certain actions to reduce the chance of severe pain. The agreement didn’t say exactly what changes the state agreed to, like whether they would have anesthetics. It wasn’t clear right away if a cutdown was needed on Tuesday.

Just before the execution, the highest court rejected both of Dorsey’s appeals without giving any explanation. His lawyers asked the high court to help him because he had acted well in prison and had changed for the better. They said that the $12,000 flat fee paid to his two public defenders made them want to finish the case quickly. Based on what they said, Dorsey admitted he was guilty even though he didn’t have a deal with the prosecutors to avoid being sentenced to death.

On Monday, the Republican Governor. Mike Parson said no to a request for leniency. 72 prison officers asked him to change Dorsey’s sentence to life in prison without parole, but he refused. They mentioned that Dorsey has had very good behavior while in prison. Parson used to be a county sheriff and is now a Republican. He has never forgiven anyone since he started his job in 2018.

Parson said that Dorsey punished his family for helping him when he needed it. His relatives asked him to come to their house, where he was with his family and friends, and they let him stay there. Dorsey treated them very badly by hurting them and even killing them.

Missouri plans to carry out the next execution on June 11 for David Hosier, who was found guilty of killing a woman in Jefferson City in 2009. Five people were killed in five different states this year – Alabama, Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Missouri.