The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to intervene in the execution of a Missouri death row inmate for double homicide more than 15 years ago.
The inmate was convicted in the 2006 slayings of his cousin and her husband, Sarah Bonnie and Ben Bonnie, in Callaway County while their 4-year-old daughter was in the home.
Mr. Dorsey went to the Bonnies’ home that night. After they went to bed, Mr. Dorsey took a shotgun from the garage and killed both of them before abusing Sarah Bonnie’s body, prosecutors said. Police said Mr. Dorsey stole several items from the home and tried to pay off a drug debt with some of the stolen goods.
“Brian Dorsey punished his loving family for helping him in a time of need,” Mr. Parson said in his statement Monday, making note of why he was sentenced to death. “The pain Dorsey brought to others can never be rectified, but carrying out Dorsey’s sentence according to Missouri law and the Court’s order will deliver justice and provide closure,” he added.
One of his appeals to the Supreme Court focuses on Mr. Dorsey’s record of good behavior since his incarceration, while another appeal to the high court said that his life should be spared because his lawyers had a conflict of interest in the case. The public defenders were paid a $12,000 flat fee that provided them with no incentive to invest time in his case, the appeal claimed.
On their recommendation, Mr. Dorsey pleaded guilty despite having no agreement with prosecutors that he would be spared the death penalty, it contended.
A day after the killings, Sarah Bonnie’s parents went to check on the Bonnies after they failed to show up for a family gathering. They found the couple’s 4-year-old daughter on the couch watching TV. She told her grandparents that her mother “won’t wake up.”
Mr. Dorsey surrendered to police three days after the killings.
Clemency Petition
Several corrections officers said that Mr. Dorsey has since been rehabilitated while in prison. “The Brian I have known for years could not hurt anyone,” one wrote in the clemency petition. “The Brian I know does not deserve to be executed.”Former Missouri Supreme Court Justice Michael Wolff wrote to the Missouri governor that he was on the panel that denied his appeal and said the prior decision was wrong. He appeared to agree with his lawyers’ arguments that the public defenders in the case had a conflict of interest.
“Missouri Public Defenders now do not use the flat fee for defense in recognition of the professional standard that such an arrangement gives the attorney an inherent financial conflict of interest,” Mr. Wolff wrote.
An attorney for Mr. Dorsey said that his execution would be devastating because a “wealth of information” allegedly shows that Mr. Dorsey is “uniquely deserving of mercy.”
Family Responds
The petition for clemency was backed by some members of the victims’ families, but other members said he deserved the death penalty. Mr. Dorsey, one of the family members told CNN, committed the “ultimate betrayal” when he murdered his cousin and her husband.“Not only did Jade lose her parents but we also lost a daughter and son, sister and brother, aunt and uncle, and a great aunt and great uncle to so many,” the statement from Sarah Bonnie’s family said.
“They were loved so deeply by anyone that knew them,” it continued. “All of these years of pain and suffering we finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Brian will get the justice that Sarah and Ben have deserved for so long.”
