Brian Dorsey executed in Missouri despite groundswell of support

correction

An earlier version of this article incorrectly said Brian Dorsey had spent 17 years on death row. He had been in custody since 2006, but he was not sentenced to die until after he pleaded guilty in 2008. The article has been corrected.

The state of Missouri executed Brian Dorsey, who was convicted in the December 2006 double murder of his cousin and her husband, shortly after 6 p.m. local time Tuesday.

Hours earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to stop the execution. No dissents were noted in the court’s decision to reject two bids filed Sunday by the death row inmate. Dorsey, 52, had been held at Potosi Correctional Center in Washington County, Mo.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) denied a separate plea for clemency this week, supported by more than 70 correctional officers.

Dorsey’s legal team and his supporters had argued in the clemency petition that it would be wrong to execute Dorsey because he has been rehabilitated.

The facts

Dorsey pleaded guilty in 2008 but argued that he should not be put to death. His execution warrant was issued Dec. 13, 2023, for shooting and killing the two family members with a shotgun.
He had “unprecedented” written support of dozens of prison staff members, including the former warden, who said he should not be executed, his attorneys wrote. He had a pristine disciplinary record during his 17 years in custody, they added.
Family members argued for and against Dorsey’s clemency. A statement from Sarah Bonnie’s side of the family given to local television station KOMU argued Dorsey should receive no reprieve because the couple’s daughter never knew her parents. Meanwhile, video provided by Dorsey’s attorneys show cousins of his saying they want his life spared.

The crime

Two days before Christmas 2006, Dorsey’s cousin Sarah Bonnie and her husband, Ben Bonnie, took in Dorsey because a pair of drug dealers were threatening him to collect on his drug debt, according to a news release from Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (R).

Dorsey was in a “psychotic state” from not sleeping for 72 hours while on a crack cocaine bender, according to his attorneys. That night, prosecutors said, Dorsey shot the couple with their own shotgun in their bed. They left behind a 4-year-old daughter.

Prosecutors said Dorsey took a cellphone, jewelry, two firearms and a copy of “Bambi II” belonging to the daughter of the victims. He took the items to repay his drug debt, according to court records filed by prosecutors.

When he learned police were looking for him, he turned himself in and cooperated, his attorneys wrote.

Concerns with the case

Dorsey’s current attorneys argued that their client received ineffective counsel at his trial.

The trial attorneys conducted no investigation, his current attorneys wrote, adding that the trial attorneys “obtained nothing for Mr. Dorsey in exchange for his guilty plea.”

They say the original attorneys did not disclose that Dorsey was in a drug-induced psychosis. The current attorneys argue that part of the reason may be financial: The trial attorneys received a flat fee of $12,000 — a practice Mary Fox, director of the Missouri State Public Defender System, said discourages thorough work.

Fox wrote a letter to the courts arguing that the flat fee is an issue in this case because it has since been recognized as a violation of American Bar Association guidelines and Missouri Rules of Professional Conduct.

“Missouri State Public Defender acknowledges the prevalence of unconstitutional and ineffective assistance of counsel in death penalty flat fee cases,” she wrote.

Three years before the crime, the American Bar Association wrote that “counsel in death penalty cases should be fully compensated at a rate that is commensurate with the provision of high quality legal representation and reflects the extraordinary responsibilities inherent in death penalty representation.”

The bigger picture

Dorsey was diagnosed with major depression disorder when he was young, his attorneys wrote, and medication did not help him. He later began self-medicating with crack cocaine when he was a teenager, according to his attorneys.

An open question in this case is whether the Eighth Amendment protects from execution people who have been rehabilitated, his attorneys argued in their latest attempt to stay the execution.

“Because of Mr. Dorsey’s unsurpassed record on Missouri’s death row, this case presents the best vehicle for the Court to take up this question,” his attorneys wrote.

Parson, the governor, wrote in a Monday news release that the execution would “provide closure.”

“The pain Dorsey brought to others can never be rectified, but carrying out Dorsey’s sentence according to Missouri law and the Court’s order will deliver justice and provide closure,” Parson said.

Supporters

Upon hearing the nation’s highest court would not consider saving Dorsey’s life, his attorney Kirk Henderson said: “Executing Brian Dorsey is a pointless cruelty, an exercise of the State’s power that serves no legitimate penological purpose. ... We will miss his smile and his bear hugs. It has been my honor to know Brian and to share his story.”
Dorsey was called a model inmate, one who lived in the honor dorm and works as the prison’s barber. He gave haircuts to the prison guards, Dorsey’s attorneys wrote.
Retired warden Troy Steele, who headed the Potosi Correctional Center, wrote of Dorsey that “his behavior is reported as exceptional, having received no reports for any type of misconduct.” He wrote that Dorsey has achieved the “highest levels of respect and confidence” from staffers in the prison.
A group of more than 70 corrections staff members at the prison wrote a letter to Parson in which they said they are usually in favor of the death penalty but “are in agreement that the death penalty is not the appropriate punishment for Brian Dorsey,” according to a court filing. They know he was convicted of murder, but that’s not the Brian “they know.”

A final public statement

Hours before Dorsey was executed, his attorneys released a handwritten statement in which he said he was “truly deeply overwhelmingly sorry.”

“Words cannot hold the just weight of my guilt and shame,” he said to his victims’ families. “I still love you. I never wanted to hurt anyone. I am sorry I hurt them and you.”

He then addressed his family, friends and supporters.

“I am grateful for you,” the letter said. “I have peace in my heart, in large part because of you.”

“To all sides of this sentence, I carry no ill will or anger, only acceptance and understanding.”

Mark Berman and Kim Bellware contributed to this report.

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