Missouri execution stayed at the eleventh hour after the Supreme Court intervened and issued a stay of the execution. The man who was set for execution had killed a woman and her two children in the course of a robbery.
Mark Christeson, the Missouri inmate whose execution was stayed, was scheduled to die on Wednesday at 12:01 am by injection. He was to be executed in the state prison of Bonne Terre before the late stay of execution was entered. The matter will now be taken up by the court.
The Missouri execution stayed is a first of its kind this year. Christeson's execution would have been the ninth one this year for the state, marking an all time high for Missouri since 1999. Another inmate is scheduled to be executed. Leon Taylor is scheduled to die on November 9 for killing an independence Missouri gas station attendant.
Christeson's Missouri execution was stayed after a request for new legal representation was made. Christeson's court appointed lawyers had failed to properly represent the inmate after they missed the filing deadline for a crucial motion that would have allowed him to continue an application for appeal. He claims that his lawyers only got back to him after the deadline had passed, hence his case was not reviewed at the federal level.
Christeson, 35, was charged with the murder of Susan Brouk and her two children, Adrian,12, and Kyle,9. Back in 1998, Christeson, then 18, with his 17 year old cousin Jesse Carter, decided to steal Brouk's Ford Bronco. They took shotguns and headed off to her residence. They tied the two children together with shoe laces before Christeson allegedly took Brouk to her room and raped her. On leaving the room, Adrian, Brouk's child, recognized him. Christeson declared that they had to deal with them. They allegedly drove off to a pond, slit every family member's throats and dumped the bodies in the water. Carter was sentenced to life in prison after agreeing to testify against Christeson. More details as they emerge on the Missouri execution stayed.
