A double murderer has been executed by lethal injection on Tuesday despite having had the decision overturned on three occasions.
Carman Deck, 56, who was first sentenced to death in 1998 was executed after the Missouri governor decided against granting him clemency.
He had the original ruling overturned on three occasions due to procedural errors.
Deck’s attorney Elizabeth Unger Carlyle told news outlet KDSK that the execution was “unconstitutional” because it had been overturned so many times.
Deck confessed to killing elderly couple James and Zelma Long as he burgled their rural home in De Soto, in the east of Missouri, in July 1996.
He was given a lethal injection at 6pm local time at the state prison in Bonne Terre.
The Missouri Supreme Court decided not to act to stop the execution and following that, Missouri Governor Mike Parson said on Monday the execution would proceed.
“Mr Deck has received due process, and three separate juries of his peers have recommended sentences of death for the brutal murders he committed,” Mr Parson said in a statement.
“The State of Missouri will carry out Mr Deck's sentence according to the Court's order and deliver justice.”
The 1998 death sentence was overturned by the Missouri Supreme Court when it was discovered Deck’s attorney had committed serious errors during the trial.
Then a second death penalty ruling was thrown out in 2005 when it was decided he had been prejudiced with the jury having seen him in shackles.
Finally a third decision to execute Deck in 2008 was annulled after a trial witness did not appear during sentencing.
But a three-judge panel of the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the death penalty in October, 2020, ruling Deck should have voiced his concerns in the state and not the federal court.
Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to the Missouri governor on Monday asking him to halt the execution.
"Our state has a responsibility to rise above those impulses and uphold moral and spiritual fortitude in the face of evil," wrote Ingrid Burnett, a Kansas City Democrat.
"We believe that a failure to do so degrades our institutions, threatens our character, and grants too much authority to a state apparatus that could utilize that power flagrantly in the future."
The letter was signed by over 20 other House Democrats, including Minority Leader Crystal Quade of Springfield.
A rally was also held opposing the death penalty last week outside the Missouri State Capitol.
