The state of Missouri on Tuesday executed Brian Dorsey for the 2006 murders of his cousin, Sarah Bonnie, and her husband, Benjamin Bonnie, after an effort to have his life spared failed in recent days.
Dorsey’s time of death was recorded as 6:11 p.m, the Missouri Department of Corrections said in a news release. The method of execution was lethal injection, Karen Pojmann, a spokesperson for the department, said at a news conference, adding it “went smoothly, no problems.”
The execution of Dorsey, 52, occurred hours after the US Supreme Court declined to intervene and about a day after Missouri’s Republican governor denied clemency, rejecting the inmate’s petition – backed by more than 70 correctional officers and others – for a commutation of his sentence to life in prison.
Dorsey and his attorneys cited his remorse, his rehabilitation while behind bars and his representation at trial by attorneys who allegedly had a “financial conflict of interest” as reasons he should not be put to death. But those arguments were insufficient to convince Gov. Mike Parson, who said in a statement carrying out Dorsey’s sentence “would deliver justice and provide closure.”
Are you trying to argue that it’s okay to imprison innocent people but it’s not okay to execute them? Because even without the death penalty, these innocent people you’re referring to would just spend life in prison. I guess that’s acceptable to you?
What if they die in prison? Even if their case gets overturned, they could’ve spent decades in prison. Is that okay to you?
Nothing about what they said implies that this would be ok.
Problem with homicide is that it’s final. Someone falsely imprisoned has the chance of being let go. Anyone who is killed immediately loses that option.
False. He said we shouldn’t execute them because they may be innocent. That implies imprisoning them is okay, unless he thinks we shouldn’t imprison child rapists because they may be innocent.
Okay. So it’s alright to punish innocent people as long as it’s not permanent?
Unless of course they die in prison, in which case…?
And also, losing decades of your life in prison is permanent. You don’t get that time back.
No it doesn’t.
Nope.
Okay.
Then we shouldn’t imprison people because they might be innocent just like we shouldn’t execute them because they might be innocent.
Do you agree with this? Why or why not?
You can let someone out of prison. You can’t unkill them.
What about people who die in prison?
They generally do so when they’re older than the people who get executed for the same accused crime. Meaning there’s a chance they’ll have a life outside of prison if they’re innocent.
Again, you can’t unkill someone. You can, however, not intentionally kill them.
Yeah, but what about those who don’t get that chance?
What about them? They’re not intentionally killed.
So? They still lose their lives.
You really don’t understand the difference between an innocent person potentially dying in prison and an innocent person definitely dying in prison?
Of course I do. The end result is still the same for those who die in prison.