Death penalty in Southeast Missouri timeline

(Before executions began in Missouri's gas chamber in the 1930s, legal hangings were held in the state's counties. A comprehensive list of these executions could not be found. A few instances of legal hangings in Southeast Missouri were found from a variety of sources.)

Circa 1828 -- On a change of venue from Scott County, Pressly Morris was convicted in Cape Girardeau County of the stabbing death of Zach Wylie in Kelso, Missouri. He was hanged in Jackson.

Jan. 30, 1833 -- Isaac Whitson was hanged at Jackson, having been convicted in the December 1832 term of the circuit court for the murder of John M. Daniel.

Feb. 20, 1847 -- Nathan Watkins, a slave owned by Asa Watkins, was hanged in Jackson for the December 1846 axe-slaying of Thomas Criddle, a slave owned by Jesse Criddle. Overseeing the execution was Cape Girardeau County Sheriff James N. Bennett.

June 15, 1899 -- In the last legal hanging in Cape Girardeau County, John Headrick was executed in Jackson for the murder of James M. Lail in 1898. County Sheriff Ben Gockell supervised the execution.

Aug. 30, 1935 -- Dave Gayman and Roy Hamilton paid with their lives on the gallows at New Madrid, Missouri, for the slaying of Arthur Cashion in a holdup of a filling station south of New Madrid on Christmas Eve 1933. Hamilton, 26, the younger of the two, by his own choice, was executed first. Serving as executioner was County Sheriff Sam Harris.

April 2, 1937 -- Fred Adams, 22, from Rector, Arkansas, was hanged at Kennett, Missouri, from a scaffold built on the north side of the jail. He had been convicted of the March 28, 1934, murder of night marshall Clarence Green at Campbell, Missouri. Springing the trapdoor on the scaffold was Dunklin County Sheriff G.D. Miles.

July 14, 1938 -- Johnny Jones, 34, was executed in Missouri's gas chamber. He had been convicted of the brutal attack of a farm woman in New Madrid County after tying her husband to a bedpost.

Jan. 3, 1941 -- Wilburn Johnson was executed for the 1940 slayings of Sarah Mitchell, 13, and Willis Mitchell, 15, over an argument for $5 near Neelyville, Missouri.

June 16, 1944 -- Allen Lambus, 73, of Mississippi County, was executed for murder after seven reprieves. He was put to death in Missouri's gas chamber for slaying a teenage girl with a hay-hook when she resisted his amorous advances.

November 1962 -- Delbert Cornett of Poplar Bluff, Missouri, was sentenced to death for first-degree murder.

July 26, 1963 -- Sammy Aire Tucker, 26, was executed for the slayings of Cape Girardeau police officers Herbert Goss and Donald Crittendon in 1961. His partner in crime, Douglas Thompson, was tried and convicted of the murders three times. Convictions in Bollinger and Mississippi counties were both overturned, and he again was convicted in 1984 by a Scott County jury. His last conviction resulted in a life sentence, and he was paroled in 1987.

1976 -- The U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to resume executions.

1988 -- Missouri's capital murder law was altered to allow executions.

Oct. 21, 1992 -- Ricky Lee Grubbs was executed by lethal execution at the Potosi Correctional Center. He was convicted of capital murder in the death of Jerry Thornton, 46, of Miner, Missouri, in Scott County. Thornton's body was found Feb. 15, 1984. He had been tied up with neckties, his throat was cut, and several of his bones were broken in a beating. Grubbs returned to the mobile home where the remains were found the day after the slaying and set it on fire to destroy evidence.

June 27, 1996 -- Andrew Lyons, 38, was found guilty of killing his girlfriend, their baby and his girlfriend's mother in September 1992 in Cape Girardeau. The jury recommended Lyons receive the death penalty for the shotgun slaying of his girlfriend, Bridgette Harris, and Dontay Harris. Judge Anthony Heckemeyer concurred. The jury was unable to agree on a sentence in the death of Harris' mother, Evelyn Sparks, leaving it up to Heckemeyer. The judge gave Lyons an additional death sentence for her killing. In addition, Lyons was given a seven-year sentence for involuntary manslaughter in the death of the baby.

March 31, 1997 -- Russell E. Bucklew was convicted in the 1996 shooting death of Michael Sanders, who was seeing Bucklew's former girlfriend.

May 5, 1999 -- Cecil Barriner was sentenced to die for the December 1996 murders of Candace and Irene Sisk of Tallapoosa, Missouri. Barriner, 37, was a resident of Poplar Bluff, Missouri, at the time of the murders.

Aug. 30, 2000 -- Gary Lee Roll of Cape Girardeau was executed for the slaying of the Scheper family in Cape Girardeau in 1992. Roll was convicted Aug. 30, 1993, of murdering Sherry Scheper and her sons, Curtis and Randy. With two accomplices, Roll shot, stabbed and pistol-whipped the three before stealing marijuana and $215 in cash.

__Dec. 27, 2000 --__ The Missouri Supreme Court held that prejudicial evidence and testimony was improperly used at the trial of Cecil Barriner, ordering a new trial for the Poplar Bluff, Missouri, man.

Jan. 29, 2001 -- A Cape Girardeau County jury recommended convicted murderer Terrance Anderson of Poplar Bluff, Missouri, die for the slaying of Debbie Rainwater in July 1997. At the same time, the jury sentenced him to life in prison without the eligibility of probation or parole in the 1997 death of Stephen Rainwater. Stephen and Debbie Rainwater were the grandparents of Anderson's daughter. In May 2001, Judge William Syler followed the jury's recommendations.

July 11, 2001 -- Jerome Mallett, 42, who shot and killed Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper James Froemsdorf of Perryville with his own .357 revolver in 1985, was executed by lethal injection at the Potosi Correctional Center. Mallett had been convicted of the murder in 1986.

__Feb. 15, 2002 --__ A jury reinstated the death penalty for Cecil Barriner. He was found guilty of the double murder of Irene Sisk and her teen-age granddaughter, Candace, in 1996.

May 14, 2002 -- The Missouri Supreme Court ruled the jury selection practices in Cape Girardeau County complied with state law and didn't result in Terrance Anderson receiving an unfair trial on two charges of first-degree murder that landed him on death row in 2001.

Feb. 5, 2003 -- Kenneth Kenley, 42, of Poplar Bluff, Missouri, was executed for the 1984 killing of a tavern patron during a one-night rampage. Kenley was convicted and ordered to die in the January 1984 killing of Ronald Felts. Kenley shot Felts in the head during a holdup of a rural Poplar Bluff tavern where Felts, 27, was playing pool with friends.

__June 18, 2003 --__ For a second time, the Missouri Supreme Court reversed Cecil Barriner's first-degree murder convictions and accompanying capital sentences, citing errors at trial. A third trial was ordered.

March 5, 2004 -- A jury in New Madrid, Missouri, decided Mark Anthony Gill should be executed for the kidnapping and execution-style murder of 54-year-old Ralph Lape Jr., of rural Jackson, in July 2002.

__Nov. 12, 2004 --__ After finding Cecil Barriner guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, a jury spared the Poplar Bluff, Missouri, man's life. It sentenced him to life in prison, without chance of parole.

July 12, 2005 -- The Missouri Supreme Court upheld the capital murder conviction of Mark Anthony Gill.

June 26, 2006 -- A federal judge halted executions in Missouri until the state Department of Corrections made sweeping changes to its execution protocol. The judge said the state's lethal injection procedure subjected condemned inmates to "unnecessary risk" of "unconstitutional pain and suffering."

June 30, 2006 -- The Missouri Supreme Court granted Terrance Anderson a new sentencing trial, stating it had wrongly denied Anderson's post-conviction relief relating to the death sentence. The court reversed the death sentence for Anderson based on ineffective counsel.

Oct. 16, 2006 -- A federal judge confirmed a ruling he made in September that the death penalty protocol in Missouri, which uses a three-drug lethal injection, could subject inmates to an unreasonable risk of cruel and unusual punishment.

Dec. 4, 2006 -- The state filed documents appealing the federal judge's order.

June 4, 2007 -- A federal appeals court ruled the state's lethal injection procedure isn't cruel and unusual punishment.

July 2, 2007 -- The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was asked to consider whether the state's lethal injection method is constitutional.

April 21, 2008 -- The U.S. Supreme Court turned down the appeal of convicted Kansas City murderer Michael Taylor, whose challenges to Missouri's lethal injection procedures had halted his and other executions in the state.

July 24, 2008 -- Inmates, families, clergy and legislators claimed in a new lawsuit that Missouri's method of lethal injection violates state law. The lawsuit, filed in Cole County, said the Missouri Department of Corrections and director Larry Crawford did not comply with state requirements to provide public notice and invite comments on new execution procedures or advise a legislative rules committee.

Dec. 28, 2008 -- Terrance Anderson of Poplar Bluff, Missouri, was returned to death row after he again was sentenced to death for killing his infant daughter's grandmother.

Jan. 22, 2009 -- The Missouri Supreme Court took a second look at the way the state adopted its procedures for executing condemned inmates. In a somewhat unusual move, the state's high court heard a second round of arguments on claims Missouri's execution protocol is invalid because it was not adopted as an official rule by the Department of Corrections. The department contends the execution protocol is an internal management policy exempt from formal rule-making.

Feb. 24, 2009 -- The state Supreme Court upheld the means by which Missouri adopted its lethal injection procedures, clearing a barrier that had halted executions.

June 23, 2009 -- Executions in Missouri again were effectively put on hold by a federal stay of the execution of Reginald Clemons. The 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals put a hold on Clemons' scheduled June 17 execution after his attorneys challenged Missouri's lethal injection procedures. They were seeking further court proceedings to ensure Missouri was using competent personnel who wouldn't put inmates in pain with insufficient amounts of anesthesia before lethal injections.

Nov. 10, 2009 -- A federal appeal court rejected a lawsuit challenging the training and competence of Missouri's execution team.

December 2009 -- The Missouri Supreme Court overturned Mark Anthony Gill's original death sentence. The court found Gill's trial attorneys failed to discover and use information about child pornography on Lape's computer to rebut testimony on Lape's character.

Jan. 26, 2010 -- Andrew A. Lyons, 52, convicted in 1996 of the September 1992 shooting death of his girlfriend, her mother and his son, avoided the death penalty when the Missouri Supreme Court ruled he couldn't be executed because he was mentally retarded. His sentence was commuted to life in prison without possibility of parole.

March 9, 2010 -- A divided state Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of Terrance Anderson.

April 2012 -- Missouri altered its execution protocol to use the anesthetic propofol.

June 11, 2013 -- The state Supreme Court ordered Judge William Syler to step aside from the Terrance Anderson case because of the appearance of impropriety; the court ruled that Syler must recuse himself from hearing a motion for a new sentencing hearing for Anderson.

Oct. 4, 2013 -- Boone County Circuit Judge Kevin Crane ruled no testimony would be allowed about the good character of Cape Girardeau murder victim Ralph Lape Jr. when Mark Gill got a new hearing to decide whether he will receive the death sentence of life in prison. Gill was convicted of killing Lape in 2002 and sentenced to death, but that sentence was overturned in 2009.

Oct. 11, 2013 -- Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon halted what was to have been the first execution in the United States to use the popular anesthetic propofol, after threats from the European Union to limit export of the drug if it was used to carry out the death penalty. Nixon ordered the Missouri Department of Corrections to come up with a different way to perform lethal injections.

Oct. 22, 2013 -- The Missouri Department of Corrections said it was switching to a new lethal injection drug, the sedative pentobarbital.

Nov. 20, 2013 -- Missouri began lethal injections again after nearly three years, putting to death Joseph Franklin, a white supremacist responsible for slayings throughout the country.

April 9, 2014 -- The Missouri Supreme Court announced that Russell Bucklew, 45, would be put to death May 21 for the 1996 murder of Michael Sanders in Cape Girardeau. Bucklew was convicted in 1997 by a Boone County, Missouri, jury of first-degree murder, kidnapping, first-degree burglary, rape and armed criminal action.

SOURCES: Southeast Missourian archive, missourideathrow.com, Goodspeed's "History of Southeast Missouri"