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Missouri Governor Grants Clemency; Execution Was Imminent

By Steve Hall

Today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports, "Jay Nixon commutes Richard Clay's death sentence to life in prison."  It's written by Rebecca Berg. Gov. Jay Nixon on Monday halted the planned execution of convicted murderer Richard Clay, ordering him instead to spend the rest of his life in prison without parole. Clay, 45, was scheduled to die just after midnight Wednesday for the 1994 for-hire murder of Randy Martindale in Missouri's Bootheel. The governor did not explain his surprise decision. In a brief statement, Nixon said that Clay's "involvement in this crime is clear" and "the evidence clearly supports the jury's verdict of murder in the first degree." "Having looked at this matter in its entirety and after significant thought and counsel, I have concluded, however, to exercise my constitutional authority and commute Richard Clay's sentence to life without the possibility of parole," Nixon said...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on January 11, 2011 (boomark / email).