Christeson was just hours away from execution in 2014, when the U.S. Supreme Court granted him a temporary reprieve. His attorneys also argue that Christeson’s original trial lawyers were so inept that they missed a 2005 deadline for a federal appeal, a standard procedure in death penalty cases. If there is a person who deserves the death penalty, it is this defendantThe cousins fled to California, where they were caught eight days later. Maries County prosecutor Terry Daley Schwartze called the killings “brutal.”Related“If there is a person who deserves the death penalty, it is this defendant,” Schwartze said. Missouri executed 16 men from 2014 to 2015, second only to the 23 executions in Texas over the same two years.

Source: National Post January 30, 2017 21:56 UTC