Missouri executes inmate for 1998 killing over child support

[webfact]

Missouri executes inmate for 1998 killing over child support
By JIM SALTER

BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri inmate was executed Tuesday night for killing a man in a fit of rage over child support payments 16 years ago.

Andre Cole, 52, became the third convicted killer put to death this year in Missouri. His fate was sealed after the U.S. Supreme Court turned down several appeals, including one claiming Cole was mentally ill and unfit for execution.

Also Tuesday, Gov. Jay Nixon refused a clemency petition that raised concerns about the fact that Cole, who was black, was convicted and sentenced by an all-white jury.

Mike O'Connell, spokesman for the Missouri Department of Corrections, said Cole was executed by lethal injection at 10:15 p.m. and pronounced dead nine minutes later.

In the execution chamber, Cole nodded as relatives blew kisses his way. He chose not to make a final statement. He breathed deeply a few times as the drug was administered.

Cole declined any sedatives prior to the execution. He also declined to order a last meal and instead received the day's inmate tray, O'Connell said.

Attorney General Chris Koster said in a statement he hoped "that the sentence carried out tonight brings those forever impacted by this tragedy a sense of justice and a measure of closure."

Cole and his wife, Terri, were married for 11 years and had two children before divorcing in 1995. The couple fought about visitation and he was upset about child support payments, authorities said.

By 1998, Cole was $3,000 behind in child support. Koster said Cole became angry when he learned that a payroll withholding order was issued to his employer, taking the money out of his check.

"Before I give her another dime, I'll kill (her)," Cole told co-workers, according to Koster.

The first deduction appeared on his Aug. 21, 1998, paycheck. Hours later, Cole forced his way into his ex-wife's home by throwing a tire jack through a glass door, Koster said. He was confronted by Anthony Curtis, a friend who was visiting.

Andre Cole used a kitchen knife to repeatedly stab Curtis, then Terri Cole. Curtis died but Terri Cole survived.

Cole fled the state but surrendered 33 days later. He claimed at trial that he did not bring a weapon into Terri Cole's house and that Curtis initiated the attack with a knife.

No relatives of Terri Cole or Anthony Curtis attended the execution.

Andre Cole's brother, DeAngelo Cole, 38, of Las Vegas, said the attack was out of character for his sibling. He called it a crime of passion.

"It was a one-time thing," DeAngelo Cole said. "He didn't have a history of that kind of behavior."

Cole's attorney, Joseph Luby, said Cole's mental health deteriorated during the more than a decade he spent in prison. He said Cole was plagued by psychosis and constantly heard voices in his head.

The courts were not convinced.

Both the Missouri Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to halt the execution based on mental health concerns. The U.S. Supreme Court also turned away appeals based on Missouri's secretive method of obtaining the execution drug pentobarbital and over how instructions were given to the jury.

The jury itself was the source of the clemency request to Nixon. Advocates for Cole, including the NAACP, the American Civil Liberties Union and others, said his case was among many in which St. Louis County prosecutors unfairly prohibited black jurors from hearing a death penalty case involving a black suspect.

All 12 jurors in Cole's case were white. Kimber Edwards, who was scheduled for execution in May, was also convicted and sentenced by an all-white jury. The Missouri Supreme Court, without explanation, canceled the execution orders for Edwards earlier this month.

Missouri tied Texas for the most executions in 2014 with 10. Missouri has now executed 15 men since November 2013.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-04-15

[hard124get]

"Cole, who was black, was convicted and sentenced by an all-white jury." if he was the son of a white banker?

[NeverSure]

The OP isn't a legal brief. It's a summary by a writer who has limited legal understanding.

There is a doctrine in the law called aggravation. If you commit a crime it can be aggravated by other circumstances which are notably called aggravating circumstances. An example is killing someone while committing another crime such as robbing a bank. You are toast.

In this case the man was already a serious felon because he smashed his way into the house with a tire iron. At that point he lost all of his rights including self defense. You have no rights while committing a crime.

Breaking into someone's home is so serious in Missouri (and in my state) that the homeowner may kill you just for being there. That's right. The homeowner doesn't have to wait to find out what you're up to, why you're there or even if you're armed. Break in and commit suicide.

This guy was either losing on appeals or having courts refuse to hear his appeals as a matter of law. The facts weren't in dispute not even by the killer. He broke into someone's house and someone was killed and he was naked before the law.

End of.

[DGS1244]

The OP isn't a legal brief. It's a summary by a writer who has limited legal understanding.

There is a doctrine in the law called aggravation. If you commit a crime it can be aggravated by other circumstances which are notably called aggravating circumstances. An example is killing someone while committing another crime such as robbing a bank. You are toast.

In this case the man was already a serious felon because he smashed his way into the house with a tire iron. At that point he lost all of his rights including self defense. You have no rights while committing a crime.

Breaking into someone's home is so serious in Missouri (and in my state) that the homeowner may kill you just for being there. That's right. The homeowner doesn't have to wait to find out what you're up to, why you're there or even if you're armed. Break in and commit suicide.

This guy was either losing on appeals or having courts refuse to hear his appeals as a matter of law. The facts weren't in dispute not even by the killer. He broke into someone's house and someone was killed and he was naked before the law.

End of.

Makes a change to read a post that is both sensible and informative, we live and learn.

[ezzra]

In a case like this they say 'better late than never '.......

[F430murci]

"Cole, who was black, was convicted and sentenced by an all-white jury." if he was the son of a white banker?

He would have paid his child support and not killed one and tried to kill another.

[CraigSchuler]

Guess maybe the poor fool should of started out by paying his child support!......

[NeverSure]

I do not condone nor ever would this man's actions but I cannot help but reflect on how many men have been driven to this point by a gender who view men only as life support systems for a <deleted>.

No one can drive me to that point. Regardless of what anyone else does I take responsibility only for my own actions choices. No one can make me do, say, or feel anything. I always have a choice. It's how I choose to react to someone else behavior that defines who I am.

There is a huge difference between actual self defense which I would do gladly, and revenge which this guy did. This guy chose to break into a house and chose to get a knife. If that was my house he'd have been dead a long time ago - by the time he was finished breaking glass.

The police would have called it suicide justifiable. The facts in this case bear that out. If he had been killed upon entry there wouldn't have been another victim and this would have been sorted long ago.

[kbelyeu]

Good thing this piece of trash has now departed.

Kurt