BONNE TERRE, Mo. – Missouri has carried out its first execution since 2005 with the death of Dennis Skillicorn.
Skillicorn was put to death early Wednesday for killing a Good Samaritan who stopped on the road to help him. The 49-year-old received an injection at 12:23 a.m. at the prison in Bonne Terre and died 11 minutes later.
As part of a lengthy final statement, Skillicorn apologized to the family of the victim, Richard Drummond, saying that "for the last 15 years I've lived with the remorse of my actions." Skillicorn mouthed words to his wife and two spiritual advisers as the first drug was administered to him. Soon, he appeared unconscious.
As part of a new protocol, curtains in witness viewing areas were then closed for about two minutes while medical staff checked to make sure that Skillicorn was unconscious and that the catheters were working properly. Once confirmed, the next two drugs were administered, and he was pronounced dead a short time later.
In 1994, a car carrying Skillicorn, Allen Nicklasson and Tim DeGraffenreid stalled along Interstate 70 north of Fulton in Callaway County.
Drummond, from the northwestern Missouri town of Excelsior Springs, stopped to help, but was forced at gunpoint to drive the men toward Kansas City. On the way, the men stopped in a rural area, and Nicklasson shot Drummond in the back of the head.
Skillicorn's fate was sealed Tuesday after the Missouri Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court turned down several appeals filed by Skillicorn's attorney, Jennifer Merrigan, and Gov. Jay Nixon denied a clemency request. An emergency request for a stay, filed around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, was denied by Missouri's high court about 90 minutes later.
In his decision, Nixon noted that Skillicorn was on parole for another murder at the time Drummond was kidnapped, robbed and killed. Nixon also noted that Skillicorn was convicted of two subsequent murders in Arizona just days after Drummond was killed.
"The jury that convicted Dennis Skillicorn determined that he deserved the most severe punishment under Missouri law, and my decision on clemency upholds the jury's action," Nixon said in a statement.
Supporters wanted Skillicorn's sentence commuted to life in prison, calling him a role model for other inmates. Skillicorn was chairman of the hospice program at the Potosi Correctional Center, the prison where death row inmates are housed before being moved to Bonne Terre for execution. He co-founded a program that teaches inmates to be better parents. He compiled a book aimed at persuading juvenile offenders to turn their lives around.
"We need him out there," Sam Finley, a volunteer at Potosi, said. "We've got some bad eggs and they can destroy the whole complex. You need some positive role models."
Skillicorn grew up in Kansas City. In 1979, Skillicorn and two other men killed 81-year-old Wendell Howell during a home invasion near Levasy in western Missouri. Skillicorn was convicted of second-degree murder.
He got out of prison in 1992, and two years later met Nicklasson at a drug rehab center in Kansas City. The men, along with DeGraffenreid, decided to go on a drug run to St. Louis.
When their car broke down outside Kingdom City, Drummond made the fateful decision to stop and help. Instead, he was kidnapped. En route to Kansas City, the men stopped in a rural area of Lafayette County where Drummond was shot to death.
The men stole Drummond's Dodge Intrepid and drove to Arizona. When the vehicle broke down in the desert, they approached the home of Joseph Babcock, who was shot and killed by Nicklasson after driving the pair back to their vehicle. The victim's wife, Charlene Babcock, was then killed at the couple's home.
Skillicorn pleaded guilty and received two life sentences in the Arizona killings.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
