The St. Louis Post-Dispatch carries the AP report, "Missouri court delays scheduled execution."
The Missouri Supreme Court on Wednesday postponed the state's first scheduled execution in three years after attorneys for the condemned man claimed prison officials obstructed their efforts to prepare a clemency petition.
The state's highest court delayed Dennis Skillicorn's scheduled Aug. 27 execution by at least 30 days. The court said his attorneys were entitled to interview inmates and prison staff, on a voluntary basis, so long as that was consistent with prison security needs.
And:
The state Supreme Court said July 25 that it would set Skillicorn's execution date for Aug. 27. On July 28, attorney Jennifer Merrigan sent a letter to the Corrections Department's legal counsel seeking permission to interview seven inmates in preparation for a clemency petition to Gov. Matt Blunt.
Merrigan said in an affidavit to the Supreme Court that she never received a response.
Crawford said Wednesday that was because "we've been working on how they can do that."
Skillicorn's attorney also said the department's general counsel had not responded to a request to interview a prison employee. Crawford said such interviews need to occur on the employee's own time.
The department denied an April request by Merrigan to obtain videotaped statements from prisoners. Crawford said that cameras aren't allowed in prison for security reasons.
In her court filing, Skillicorn's attorney asserted that prison officials were "using their enormous power" to interfere with her work "with the obvious intent of putting their thumbs on death's side of the scales."
"Clemency petition postpones Skillicorn execution," is the report in the Kansas City Star.
Since going to prison, Skillicorn has become the editor of a magazine published by death-row inmates, written a book for troubled youths, founded a program for families with incarcerated parents and led the prison’s hospice program for terminally ill offenders, according to the Missouri Catholic Conference, which has asked the governor to grant him clemency.
According to the court order, his execution will be rescheduled for the first date available after 30 days from Aug. 27.
Today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch also has a lengthy editorial, "The quality of mercy." Here are two brief excerpts:
Late Wednesday afternoon the Missouri Supreme Court postponed for at least 30 days the state's plans to administer the death penalty for the first time in almost three years. It was the correct decision.
We say that not only because this editorial page long has opposed capital punishment in all circumstances, believing that it has no place in a civilized society. And in this particular case, the arguments against the ultimate punishment are particularly strong.
And:
If the fact Skillicorn had very little to do with the actual murder isn't enough to convince Gov. Blunt to commute his sentence, perhaps his record as a model prisoner will. The Supreme Court's action should help him consider that record more completely. Skillicorn's lawyers had been denied access to prison staff and inmates as part of their efforts to draw up a clemency petition. On Wednesday, the court said this amounted to "obstruction of clemency advocacy."
Skillicorn's lawyers now have one month to do conduct interviews on a voluntary basis with the people who know Skillicorn best. It's in the best interest of the Department of Corrections to cooperate.
As Neal Turnbrough, a former guard at the Potosi Correctional Center in Mineral Point, put it: "You'd like to have a whole prison of Dennises; it makes the job easier."
Skillicorn is a leader in several Christian prison ministries. He helped create a hospice program to care for inmates who are sick and dying. He is the editor of "Compassion," a bi-monthly newsletter for death row inmates nationwide, the mission of which is "promoting restorative justice and reconciliation."
Earlier coverage of the Skillicorn case is here.
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