A Missouri death row inmate was executed Tuesday night following denials of two appeals by the U.S. Supreme Court for a pair of 2006 slayings.
Brian Dorsey, 52, was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m. after a single-dose injection of the sedative pentobarbital at the state prison in Bonne Terre, Karen Pojmann, communications director for the Missouri Department of Corrections told Fox News Digital in an email.
He took a few deep breaths as the drug was injected, then several shallow, quick breaths. At one point, he raised his head from the pillow and blinked hard. After several seconds, all movement stopped. A spiritual adviser seated next to the gurney continued to speak. It was unclear what he was saying — the room is soundproof.
Dorsey was served his customary last meal at 11 a.m. The meal consisted of two cheeseburgers, two orders of chicken strips, two large orders of French fries and a pizza with sausage, pepperoni, onion, mushrooms and extra cheese, the Missouri Department of Corrections told Fox News Digital.
Dorsey received the death penalty for the 2006 killings of his cousin and her husband. The execution was carried out following denials by the U.S. Supreme Court of two appeals on Dorsey’s behalf.
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A photo released by the Federal Public Defender, shows inmate Brian Dorsey at the Potosi Correctional Center, Washington County, Missouri. (Jeremy Weis, Federal Public Defender via AP)
Dorsey killed his cousin and her husband inside their central Missouri home two days before Christmas in 2006, leaving their 4-year-old daughter alone in the home. He was scheduled to die by injection of a single dose of the sedative pentobarbital at 6 p.m. at the state prison in Bonne Terre.
Dorsey was convicted of killing Sarah and Ben Bonnie on Dec. 23, 2006, at their home near New Bloomfield. Prosecutors said that earlier that day, Dorsey called Sarah Bonnie seeking to borrow money to pay two drug dealers who were at his apartment.
Dorsey went to the Bonnies’ home that night. After they went to bed, Dorsey took a shotgun from the garage and killed both of them before sexually assaulting Sarah Bonnie’s body, prosecutors said. Police said Dorsey stole several items from the home and tried to pay off a drug debt with some of the stolen goods.
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This photo shows a gurney used in giving lethal injections to convicted death row inmates. (AP Photo; Sue Ogrocki)
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.”
Dorsey surrendered to police three days after the killings.
He “has spent every day of the past 18 years trying to make up for the single act of violence” he committed in 2006, one of his lawyers said.
“Executing Brian Dorsey is a pointless cruelty, an exercise of the State’s power that serves no legitimate penological purpose,” Kirk Henderson said in a statement.
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In a final statement handed out prior to the execution, Dorsey expressed deep sorrow for the killings.
“Words cannot hold the just weight of my guilt and shame,” the written statement said, in part.
A clemency request to Missouri Gov. Mike Parson was denied.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
