As his April 9 execution draws closer, Brian Dorsey is getting support from an unusual coalition of people: Corrections officers who vouch for his good behavior in prison, a former Missouri Supreme Court judge and some Republican state lawmakers like Rep. Tony Lovasco.
“I’ve been a longstanding opponent of the death penalty for a variety of reasons,” Lovasco, R-St. Charles County, said Friday on The Politically Speaking Hour on St. Louis on the Air. “But this case is specifically calling out the egregiousness of the use of this practice.”
Missouri is set to put Dorsey to death on Tuesday for the murders of Benjamin and Sarah Bonnie. There’s no question that Dorsey shot and killed his cousin and her husband in 2006. And the details of the crime rocked the Calloway County town of New Bloomfield, and stoked shock and anger among those who knew the Bonnies.
But Lovasco and others, including former Missouri Supreme Court Judge Michael Wolff, contend that Dorsey was served exceptionally poorly by lawyers who received a flat fee for their work.
“And they recommended to him that he plead guilty without even requesting that the death penalty be taken off the table. That's insane,” Lovasco said. “Why on earth would anyone in their right mind do that? And I think it demonstrates very clearly that the system is very well geared against the person that is defending themselves.”
Lovasco also echoed others who questioned whether the death penalty was appropriate for Dorsey, especially if he was in a drug-induced psychosis at the time of the murders.
“And now since then, five of those jurors that sentenced him to death have said, ‘Well, we got it wrong,’” Lovasco said. “This is a clear case that the governor should step in and say: ‘You know what, no, we're not going to kill this guy.’”
The Missouri Supreme Court rejected a number of arguments that Lovasco and others have made to try and halt Dorsey’s execution. Among other things, the court wrote some of Dorsey’s actions — including loading and reloading a shotgun and stealing some of the Bonnies’ belongings — show that he “cannot establish a freestanding claim of actual innocence.”
The court also noted that neither Dorsey nor two experts who claimed he was incapable of deliberation “are able to claim with any certainty that he was actually experiencing psychosis at the time of the murders.”
Lovasco noted that the court requirement in this case “is to demonstrate whether or not the appellate has made a claim of actual innocence” — which he added is not applicable in this situation.
“The argument there is that he didn't meet all of the legal requirements of what he was being convicted of, which is first degree murder,” Lovasco said. “And perhaps a more appropriate penalty would have been a second-degree murder or something similar. I think that's different than you know, he didn't do it. I think it's pretty clear. He did it.”
Could Parson be moved?
Parson spokesman Johnathan Shiflett said the governor “and his legal team are in the process of reviewing Mr. Dorsey’s clemency petition.”
In Parson’s biography No Turnin’ Back, author Jim Jones wrote about how First Lady Teresa Parson observed that the governor was “withdrawn” and “closed” the entire week before someone was executed. He added that “COVID decisions had weighed heavily on the governor, but decisions made during executions made COVID decisions light as a feather in comparison.”
Parson has let a number of executions proceed. Lovasco said there are political components around whether to commute death that can’t be ignored.
“There have been countless cases where a governor has commuted a sentence, something has happened, someone's offended again, that sort of thing,” Lovasco said. “Obviously, that's not applicable in a life without parole scenario. But of course, anytime you're reducing someone's sentence, you're kind of taking on any actions that they may take after that as a potential political hit to your future.”
Still, Lovasco said that since Parson is leaving office after this year and has no desire to run for anything else, he can act without thinking of how his potential commutation will help or hurt him politically.
“And that's not to say he hasn't done that in past cases,” he said. “But I think there's a certain clarity that comes with leaving the office that I hope will help to guide him here.”
While it’s unlikely lawmakers will end the death penalty in Missouri anytime soon, Lovasco noted that he’s seen some movement among his GOP colleagues. He said a budgetary amendment to defund capital punishment received votes from 18 Republican lawmakers.
“The one thing that I kept hearing time after time was, ‘How can I go door to door that I'm 100% pro-life and sign on to the government killing someone?’” Lovasco said. “I just can't do that. I just heard that from multiple people. And I think that's really what's ultimately driving a lot of folks is that pro-life nature that really so many Republicans have.”
To listen to this conversation with Rep. Lovasco about why he thinks Gov. Parson should commute Dorsey's sentence, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcast or Spotify, or by clicking the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr and the production intern is Roshae Hemmings. Send questions and comments about this story to talk@stlpr.org.
