BONNE TERRE, Mo. — A Missouri man was executed on Tuesday for the double murder of his cousin and her husband more than 17 years ago.
Brian Dorsey, 52, was put to death by lethal injection from a single dose of the sedative pentobarbital at Potosi Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, KTVI reported. He is the first inmate to be executed in the state this year, CBS News reported. Four people were executed in Missouri in 2023.
Dorsey was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m. CDT, Karen Pojmann, communications director for the Missouri Department of Corrections, said in a statement, according to The Associated Press. Earlier, Dorsey expressed his regret in a final statement.
“I am truly, deeply, overwhelmingly sorry,” Dorsey wrote in his final statement. “Words cannot hold the just weight of my guilt and shame.”
The state of Missouri executed Brian Dorsey. He was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m.
— Jason Rosenbaum (@jrosenbaum) April 9, 2024
Dorsey pleaded guilty to murdering his cousin, Sarah Bonnie, and her husband, Benjamin Bonnie, in 2006 at their New Bloomfield home: pic.twitter.com/PdU2aFknXc
He was convicted for the Dec. 23, 2006 murders of his cousin, Sarah Bonnie, and her husband, Ben Bonne, The Washington Post reported. The couple had taken Dorsey in at their home near New Bloomfield because a pair of drug dealers were threatening him as they attempted to collect a debt, according to a news release from Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey.
Prosecutors said that Dorsey killed the couple with a shotgun after they went to bed, KSDK-TV reported. He allegedly sexually assaulted Sarah Bonnie’s body, according to the television station.
Dorsey left the home, leaving the couple’s 4-year-old daughter alone in the residence, the AP reported. Prosecutors said Dorsey took a cellphone, jewelry, two firearms and a copy of “Bambi II” belonging to the victims’ daughter, according to the Post. Prosecutors said Dorsey took the items to repay his drug debt, according to court records.
I’m in Bonnie Terre, Missouri, where the execution of Brian Dorsey is scheduled to take place. Here is his final statement: pic.twitter.com/MB199lgrpz
— Katie Moore (@katie_reports) April 9, 2024
Dorsey surrendered to law enforcement three days later, KTVI reported. He was sentenced to death on Aug. 28, 2008, after pleading guilty to the murders. Dorsey later appealed the sentence, according to the television station.
More than 70 current and former corrections officers had urged Missouri Gov. Mike Parson to commute Dorsey’s sentence to life in prison, CBS News reported. They stated that Dorsey had been rehabilitated, while his attorneys argued that the inmate was in a drug-induced psychosis when he committed the murders.
The execution came hours after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to stop the sentence from being carried out, the Post reported.
Dorsey had petitioned for a commutation, according to CNN. Dorsey had expressed his remorse and cited his rehabilitation while in jail. He also added that defense attorneys during his trial allegedly had a “financial conflict of interest.”
In a statement on Monday, Parson denied clemency for Dorsey, the news outlet reported.
“Brian Dorsey punished his loving family for helping him in a time of need. His cousins invited him into their home where he was surrounded by family and friends, then gave him a place to stay. Dorsey repaid them with cruelty, inhumane violence, and murder,” Parson said. “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.”
Kirk Henderson, one of Dorsey’s attorneys, said in a statement that his client “has spent every day of the past 18 years trying to make up for the single act of violence,” the AP reported.
“Executing Brian Dorsey is a pointless cruelty, an exercise of the State’s power that serves no legitimate penological purpose,” Henderson said in a statement.
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