A Missouri man was executed Tuesday for killing his cousin and her husband nearly two decades ago in an attack that left the couple’s 4-year-old daughter home alone and unharmed. 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, said in an email. It was the first execution in Missouri this year after four in 2023, and it came hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the inmate’s final appeals, the Associated Press reports. Dorsey, 52, formerly of Jefferson City, 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 had 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, took a shotgun from the garage, and killed both of them before sexually assaulting Sarah Bonnie’s body, prosecutors said.
Dorsey’s execution had raised new concerns about Missouri’s single-drug protocol, which includes no provision for the use of anesthetics. Dorsey's health issues could complicate finding a vein for the lethal injection, possibly requiring a painful cutdown procedure. A federal lawsuit claimed this could violate his religious rights by hindering interaction with his spiritual adviser. A settlement was reached on Saturday to address the risk of extreme pain. Hours before the execution, the Supreme Court turned aside both of Dorsey’s appeals without comment. His lawyers had urged the high court to step in, saying he had shown good behavior in prison and had been rehabilitated. They also argued a $12,000 flat fee paid to his two public defenders gave them incentive to hurry through the case. On Monday, Republican Gov. Mike Parson denied a clemency request that included signatures from 72 current and former state corrections officers who urged the governor to commute Dorsey’s sentence to life in prison without parole. They cited Dorsey’s virtually spotless record of good behavior behind bars. However, Parson, a Republican and former county sheriff, has never granted clemency since taking office in 2018.