Blunt Calls on Court To Issue Execution Orders

CITES SUPREME COURT RULING ON LETHAL INJECTION

Blunt, Nixon, Steelman Agree

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling has spurred Gov. Matt Blunt to ask the state's highest court to resume putting convicted murderers to death. The high court today narrowly rejected a challenge to the most widely used method of lethal injection Wednesday, and it's a decision that could lift the unofficial moratorium here in Missouri.

You can watch my KY3 News @ 10 report HERE.

Both Gov. Blunt and unlikely ally Attorney General Jay Nixon pushed for the death penalty to start up again in Missouri, now that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the use of lethal injection executions. The High Court turned back a constitutional challenge to Kentucky's three-drug procedure. Similar methods are used by about three dozen states, including Missouri. Blunt said the decision affirms Missouri's right to impose the death penalty by lethal injection. He asked the Missouri Supreme Court to immediately issue execution orders in all pending cases. Nixon said the ruling paves the way for lethal injection to again be used in Missouri. It has been nearly three years since the last execution in Missouri.

"I strongly support our state's capital punishment laws, believe the laws are an effective deterrent to crime and ask the Missouri Supreme Court to immediately issue execution orders for all pending cases," Blunt said in a statement.

Republican candidate for Governor Sarah Steelman also issued a statement, praising the Supreme Court decision. “The families of the victims of these cases deserve justice and they deserve closure. I call on the Missouri Supreme Court to immediately take action to issue execution orders for all pending death penalty cases.”