Man shot to death two people at a Ruby Tuesday
By Jim Salter
Associated Press
BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) - A Missouri inmate convicted in a 1998 robbery and double murder was put to death Wednesday, the eighth execution in the state this year and the 10th since November.
Earl Ringo Jr. and an accomplice killed delivery driver Dennis Poyser and manager trainee JoAnna Baysinger at a Ruby Tuesday in Columbia in the early hours of July 4, 1998. Poyser and Baysinger were shot to death at point-blank range.
Ringo's last words were a quote from the Quran that expresses belief and wishes for after death. He wiggled his feet as the process began, breathed deeply a few times, then closed his eyes, all in a matter of seconds. The Department of Corrections said Ringo was executed by lethal injection and pronounced dead at 12:31 a.m.
Courts and Gov. Jay Nixon had refused to halt the execution over concerns raised by Ringo's attorneys, who, among other things, questioned Missouri's use of a pre-execution sedative, midazolam. Attorneys argued that the drug could dull Ringo's senses and leave him unable to express any pain or suffering during the process.
Ringo declined to take any sedative, including midazolam, the Corrections Department said.
Midazolam has come under scrutiny after it was used in problematic executions earlier this year in Ohio, Oklahoma and Arizona. In each case, witnesses said the inmates gasped after their executions began and continued to labor for air before being pronounced dead.
A clemency petition to Nixon had also cited concerns about the fact that Ringo was convicted and sentenced to death by an all-white jury.
Ringo's lawyers had asked a federal appeals court to postpone the execution until a hearing over Missouri's use of midazolam. Attorney Richard Sindel claimed that Missouri's use of midazolam essentially violates its own protocol, which provides for pentobarbital as the lone execution drug.
St. Louis Public Radio reported last week that Missouri administered midazolam to all nine inmates put to death since November. Corrections department spokesman David Owen said midazolam "is used to relieve the offender's level of anxiety" and is not part of the actual execution process.
Published: Thu, Sep 11, 2014
