A man is scheduled to be executed in Missouri on Tuesday, 23 years after he killed two prison guards while trying to help a former prisoner escape.
Michael Tisius, 42, will receive a lethal injection at 18:00 (Wednesday 01:00 GMT) at Bonne-Terre prison in the central United States, unless the Supreme Court grants him an extreme stay.
According to court documents, on June 22, 2000, he and his girlfriend traveled to the Randolph County Jail, where he had previously been incarcerated on a misdemeanor, on the pretext of taking cigarettes to his former cellmate.
After exchanging views with the guards for several minutes, he pulled out a gun and shot them in the head. One died instantly, the other after receiving another volley of bullets.
Michael Titius then tried unsuccessfully to open his friend’s cell and fled with his companion. Their vehicle broke down a short distance away and they were arrested the next day.
The young man had already been sentenced to the death penalty in a first trial due to formal deficiencies. The verdict was upheld in a second trial in 2010.
Since then, Michael Tisius’ lawyers have tried in vain to save him, citing in particular the difficult childhood and influence his former, elderly fellow prisoner had on him.
On Monday, Republican Missouri Gov. Mike Parson denied a request for a clemency on the grounds that the case “had been carefully and fairly considered at every stage of the judicial process.”
The same day, the Supreme Court denied an appeal on the grounds that he was 19 at the time, which his defense attorneys said should have spared him the death penalty.
She remains busy with one final motion: Michael Titius’ lawyers say they recently discovered that one of the jurors at the 2010 trial was illiterate, which they say should have disqualified him.
The state of Missouri criticizes a strategy of delay and asks the Supreme Court to give the green light for the execution.
If that happens, Michael Titius would be the 12th convict to be executed in the United States since the beginning of the year, in just four states: Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Florida.