Missouri carried out its second execution Tuesday this year after the governor. Mike Parson rejected a pardon request filed by inmate David Hosier.
Hosier was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m. local time at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, Missouri, a corrections spokesperson said in a statement.
Hosier, 69, maintained his innocence in the double murder for which he was sentenced to death. He filed for clemency following several prior appeals, including one that the Missouri Supreme Court rejected five years ago when it unanimously upheld the state’s decision to execute him. But the power to commute Hosier’s sentence or halt his execution — or not — ultimately rests with the governor, and some contractors have recently called on Parson to spare his life.
Hosier was placed on Missouri’s death row in 2013 after being convicted of capital murder in the 2009 deaths of Angela Gilpin and Rodney Gilpin at their Jefferson City home. Governor, who oversaw 10 executions Since the start of his tenure, Hosier has said he killed the couple “in a jealous rage,” echoing the prosecution’s argument during his criminal trial.
Hosier was convicted of shooting the Gilpins during an armed burglary, after previously having a romantic relationship with Angela Gilpin. She and her husband were murdered about a month after Angela Gilpin ended her affair with Hosier, according to court documents.
“Ms. Angela Gilpin had her life stolen by David Hosier because he could not accept her when she ended their romantic relationship. He shows no remorse for his senseless violence,” Parson said in a statement Monday, announcing that Hosier’s request for clemency had been rejected. “For these heinous acts, Hosier deserved the maximum sentence under the law. I cannot imagine the pain felt by Angela and Rodney’s loved ones, but I hope that Hosier’s sentence is carried out in accordance with the court order will allow us to turn the page.”
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Hosier already had a criminal record and owned guns when the Gilpins were killed, and following the murders, Angela Gilpin’s purse contained an application for a protection order against him as well as a statement saying that she feared Hosier would shoot her. and Rodney, according to the documents.
Parson’s office said Tuesday that “Hosier, with a decades-long history of violence against women, would not let Angela reconcile with Rodney, stalking and harassing her for weeks before murdering her and her husband “.
Prior to the Gilpins case, Hosier was convicted and sentenced to prison for assaulting and seriously injuring another woman.
Hosier’s defense attorneys have tried over the years to appeal the death sentence on the grounds that no physical evidence linked Hosier to the murders. “No confession, no eyewitnesses, no fingerprints, and no DNA or other personal effects of David were found at the crime scene,” they wrote in his 2019 appeal. The lawyers also argued that the Hosier’s prior conviction for assault should not have been admissible evidence in the Gilpin trial because it unfairly biased the jury.
His recent request for clemency focused primarily on Hosier’s personal life. Much of the petition focused on a stroke Hosier suffered in 2007 that lawyers said left him with lasting brain damage, as well as the 1971 murder of his father, a police sergeant. Indiana State, which his defense called a traumatic event that led to his mental health problems into adulthood. Hosier later served in the U.S. Navy and as an emergency medical technician and firefighter in Jefferson County. His health has deteriorated in recent months, with the petition citing heart problems which intensified in early May.
American representatives. Cori Bush and Emmanuel Cleaver, both of Missouri, urged Parson to grant Hosier’s request for clemency in a letter to the governor last week. They referenced the inmate’s medical problems and mental illness and suggested that his former attorneys’ choice to omit “vital medical information” during the criminal trial could amount to “a potential violation of his Sixth Amendment rights.” Mr. Hosier.”
“Mr. Hosier’s debilitating condition further highlights the need for leniency in this matter. He does not pose a threat to those around him and deserves humane treatment as he suffers from heart failure,” Bush and Cleaver wrote in the letter.
Hosier told The Associated Press he was unhappy with his current defense team’s approach to the clemency request, which he said should have focused more on the lack of forensic evidence linking him to the death of the Gilpins and less to his childhood.
“They did the exact opposite of what I wanted them to do,” Hosier said of the clemency request, according to the AP. “I told them I didn’t want any ‘boo-hoo, woe is me.’ “This all happened 53 years ago, OK? That has nothing to do with why I’m sitting here right now.”