Reginald Clemons was shocked on Monday when he was informed that the Missouri Supreme Court had issued an order for his execution on Wednesday, June 17.
Clemons was convicted and sentenced to death in 1993 for the 1991 murders of Julie and Robin Kerry, and in 1997 the Missouri Supreme Court upheld that verdict and sentence.
Still, the timing of his death warrant came as a shock to Clemons, his family and legal team, for a simple reason: he has an appeal pending.
On Wednesday a clerk for U.S. Court of Appeals 8th Circuit confirmed that Clemons is party to Case #082895, which questions the legality of lethal injection, the means by which the State of Missouri plans to end his life.
The clerk said the case was argued on February 11 and “we have not got a ruling back yet.”
On Wednesday, attorney Donald Conklin said he was in the process of filing a stay of execution for Clemons based upon the pending appeal in the 8th Circuit and another lethal injection case that is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Conklin said “it certainly is unusual” to set an execution date for someone with an appeal pending.
The Missouri Attorney General Office was asked if it is legal to execute someone with an appeal pending – and, if it is legal, is it fair? – but had not responded by press time.
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster campaigned in the African-American community last year with the promise to take another look at Clemons’ case if he were elected. He did not return a call from The American.
At 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday, the State of Missouri proceeded with the execution of Dennis Skillicorn by lethal injection, though Skillicorn was not party to the pending appeal.
Conklin said St. Louis activist (and American columnist) Jamala Rogers was compiling letters of support and statements on Clemons’ behalf.
In an interview from death row at the Potosi Correctional Center, Clemons also questioned the fairness of Gov. Jay Nixon considering an appeal for clemency, since it was Nixon who asked the Missouri Supreme Court to set an execution date for Clemons when Nixon was attorney general.
Conklin said Clemons’ legal team at Simpson, Tacher & Bartlett was working on legal precedents that claim a conflict of interest when a governor considers clemency for a case he recommended for execution when attorney general.
On Wednesday, a spokesman for Nixon said, “If and when such a petition for clemency is submitted, there will be a full and fair review of the request before the governor makes his decision.”
On Wednesday Clemons’ mother, Vera Thomas, said The St. Louis Clergy Coalition would be meeting with Nixon to discuss her son’s fate.
On Tuesday The American asked Clemons what he would say to Nixon if provided the opportunity to address him directly. Clemons said, “Our system of justice is too imperfect to take what you can’t give back.”
Clemons is 38 years old and has been incarcerated for half of his life.
‘Too imperfect’
Though Clemons lost his 1997 appeal with the Missouri Supreme Court, many advocates have seized his case (as one of four co-defendants) as a textbook case of a system of justice that is “too imperfect.”
Clemons claims the confession he gave to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department was coerced by a beating. The judge that arraigned Clemons the day after he was interrogated sent him to an emergency room, where it was noted that Clemons had a swollen face and was suffering from muscle pain and inflammation.
The Missouri Supreme Court ruled that Clemons’ defense did not prove that he had sustained those injuries during his interrogation the day before.
Clemons’ current legal team has told The American that the quality of Clemons’ initial defense in the St. Louis Circuit Court was so poor that, based on legal procedure, they were left with little legal grounds for appeal, however sketchy the evidence to convict Clemons might have been.
Clemons’ case was prosecuted by Nels Moss. A subsequent national study of prosecutorial misconduct by the Center for Public Integrity used Moss in the introduction as a poster boy, citing “his record of seven reversals due to misconduct and 17 other findings that he committed prosecutorial error.”
Moss defended his record to the Center for Public Integrity, saying they did not understand the pressures of prosecuting criminal cases.
Notoriously, in court Moss compared Clemons’ co-defendant Marlin Gray – who was executed by the State of Missouri in 2005 – to convicted mass murderer Charles Manson. Moss also raised lurid hypothetical examples of rape and murder by knifepoint to the jurors that had no relation to the evidence in the case.
Of the four co-defendents, Gray and Clemons were sentenced to death, and Antonio Richardson was sentenced to life. Daniel Winfrey – the only defendant who is not black – made a plea bargain, was sentenced to 30 years and was freed on parole on June 4, 2007, according to the Missouri Department of Corrections.
Even more troubling to advocates for Clemons is the outcome for Thomas Cummins. A cousin of the Kerry girls who lost their lives, Cummins was initially the only suspect in their murders. He gave conflicting statements about the events on the night the girls died, and the physical evidence does not match well with his version of events that was presented in court.
More remarkably, Cummins made the same claim of coerced confession made by Clemons and Gray. However, he settled for a reported $150,000, though the terms of his agreement are sealed.
“Reggie Clemons is scheduled to die by lethal injection on June 17. I will be asking this community to come together to save his life and to remember the lives of Robin and Julie Kerry,” Jamala Rogers writes in a column available on stlamerican.com.
“The sisters lost their lives at the Chain of Rocks Bridge in 1991. The pursuit of truth has been blocked for over 18 years. We have one last opportunity to know the truth and to fight for justice. What will we do in between time?”