Federal Court Reinstates Death Penalty for Missouri Inmate Who Killed Jailers

A federal appeals court took away a stay of execution for a Missouri prisoner who is set to be killed on Tuesday for killing two jailers.

Michael Tisius, who was 42 years old, was found guilty of killing Jason Acton and Leon Egley, two Randolph County jailers, during a failed escape attempt. He was put to death.

The stay was given by U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough on Wednesday, and an evidentiary hearing was also ordered. This was because Tisius’ lawyers said that a juror in his 2010 resentencing was illiterate, which is against state law.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit said on Friday that the lower court did not have the power to order the stay.

The tweet below verifies the news:

The Kansas City Star said that Keith O’Connor, a lawyer for Tisius, said that his team will appeal the ruling.

Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty and the Missouri NAACP have asked Republican Gov. Mike Parson to give Tisius clemency. They say that he has a history of abuse, that he was only 19 years old at the time of the killings, and that he has shown remorse and changed since then.

Prosecutors say that in 2000, Tisius and Tracie Bulington went to the Randolph County jail to help Roy Vance, Bulington’s boyfriend, get out. Tisius shot the guards and killed them. The plan didn’t work because the people who broke in couldn’t find the cell keys.

Lawyers for the defense have said that Tisius wanted to put the jailers in a holding cell and set Vance and other prisoners free.

This week, Tisius’s defense team released a video in which Vance said that he planned the escape attempt and tricked Tisius into taking part.

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Bulington and Vance have been sentenced to life in prison.

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