Advocates for Missouri death row inmate Brian Dorsey plead for clemency with days to go before his execution

(CNN) — Missouri this week plans to execute death row inmate Brian Dorsey for the 2006 murders of his cousin and her husband, but a clemency petition shows scores of people have asked Gov. Mike Parsons to spare his life, citing Dorsey’s rehabilitation and what they call an unjust death sentence.

Dorsey is deeply remorseful for the murders, his clemency petition says, contending the killings of Sarah and Benjamin Bonnie happened while Dorsey was suffering a “drug-induced psychosis and alcohol-induced blackout,” making him incapable of the deliberation required for a first-degree murder charge.

Still, Dorsey accepts responsibility, the petition says, and in the years since has sought to atone: He has a spotless prison disciplinary record and works as a barber for the correctional staff, a position of immense trust.

Indeed, more than 70 correctional officers support the inmate’s clemency petition, it says, which also cites the support of five jurors from the penalty phase of his trial, a former Missouri Supreme Court justice and at least three Republican state representatives.

“His deep shame and remorse has shaped him, and apparently shaped the way he’s lived every day of his life since,” Megan Crane, one of his attorneys, told CNN. While Dorsey’s lawyers and advocates fight to have his sentence commuted, “that is still his focus in this final week: the shame and remorse he feels and reflecting on that.”

Dorsey also deserves clemency, his petition argues, because his attorneys at trial were ineffective due to a “financial conflict of interest.” They were paid flat fees of $12,000, the petition says, meaning their compensation would equal about $3.37 an hour if they did the several thousand hours of work capital cases require on average.

Dorsey’s petition notes many of his friends and family members – including those he purportedly shared with the victims – are also opposed to his execution having written a letter asking Parson to impart mercy. A copy of the letter provided to CNN by defense attorneys redacted signatories’ names for their privacy.

Still, there are other members of the victims’ families who support Dorsey’s execution, scheduled for Tuesday evening, which they described in a statement to CNN as a “light at the end of the tunnel.”

Dorsey “was a close family member who was given a safe haven to get him out of a bad situation and turned this helping hand into the ultimate betrayal of a loved one,” the statement by Sarah Bonnie’s family says.

Dorsey’s actions took the couple – who enjoyed riding Harley Davidson motorcycles and camping, according to their obituaries – from their young daughter, who grew up without her parents at foundational moments of her life.

“First day of school, school parties, school dances, first date, sweet sixteen, first boyfriend and high school graduation,” the statement says. “All of this was taken from her by a family member that proclaimed to love her.”

CNN has attempted to reach members of Benjamin Bonnie’s family for comment but has not heard back.

Dorsey and his attorneys acknowledge “many people are and forever will be grieving the loss” of Sarah and Benjamin Bonnie, his petition says, adding, “We recognize that there are no words or efforts that can make this tragedy less painful. Our intention is not to cause more harm, but to do the opposite.”

The murders of Sarah and Benjamin Bonnie

Dorsey had long struggled with severe chronic depression, his clemency petition says. For years, he’d self-medicated with alcohol and crack cocaine, but his petition claims he was going through a withdrawal at the time of the killings, which had in the past caused him to hallucinate.

The murders happened on December 23, 2006, hours after Dorsey called his cousin asking for help, according to a ruling by the Missouri Supreme Court last month, which recounted the history of the case. Two drug dealers were in his apartment, Dorsey said, and he needed money to pay them.

Sarah and Benjamin went to Dorsey’s apartment, and the drug dealers left. They then took Dorsey back to their home, the ruling notes, and Dorsey spent the evening drinking and playing pool with Sarah and Benjamin’s family and friends.

Later that night, the ruling says, Dorsey entered their room with a shotgun and fatally shot them both at close range. Court records say Dorsey raped Sarah’s body, but Dorsey’s attorneys argue this remains an allegation because he was never charged with and never pleaded guilty to rape or sexual assault.

Dorsey locked the bedroom door, then stole several items and Sarah’s car, which he drove around as he tried to sell the stolen items to pay off his debt, the ruling says. Sarah’s and Benjamin’s bodies were discovered the next day by Sarah’s parents, who found the couple’s then-4-year-old daughter alone at the house.

Dorsey turned himself in on December 26 and was charged with two counts of first-degree murder. His guilty plea in March 2008 was followed by a sentencing trial, the filing says, where jurors heard testimony and evidence about his past, including his mental health problems, suicide attempts and substance abuse.

Dorsey was sentenced to death for each murder, court records show, and his conviction and death sentence have previously been upheld on appeal.

“Governor Parson and his legal team are in the process of reviewing Mr. Dorsey’s clemency petition,” Johnathan Shiflett, a spokesperson for the Republican governor, told CNN Thursday. Parson’s office intends to announce a decision before the execution date, Shiflett added, “typically at least 24 hours in advance.”

In a previous statement announcing he had sought an execution date for Dorsey, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said he was seeking to “enforce the laws as written, which includes carrying out the lawful sentence that has been upheld by multiple courts, including the nation’s highest court.”

Dorsey still has litigation in both state and federal courts that could potentially halt his execution. It’s typical in capital cases for litigation to continue up until the last minute before an inmate is put to death.

Attorneys’ payment disincentivized work, petition claims

At the time of his murder trial, Dorsey was represented by two attorneys appointed by the Missouri State Public Defender, each of whom was paid a flat fee of $12,000, his clemency petition says, regardless of whether the case went to trial. The petition says this created a conflict of interest for Dorsey’s attorneys: “to work for Brian’s benefit was to the detriment of their own livelihoods.”

Put another way, the payment scheme disincentivized the work needed in a capital case, and Dorsey’s petition contends this was why his attorneys had him plead guilty without a guarantee of a life sentence and claims the attorneys did not adequately investigate.

“If they had they would have known what we know now, which was Brian had lifelong chronic depression, and that he had turned to self-medicating with alcohol and crack cocaine at this point because other treatments had failed,” Crane, one of Dorsey’s current attorneys, said. “And he had a history of experiencing psychosis when withdrawing from crack, experienced paranoid and persecutory delusions and hallucinations.”

“That is a defense to capital murder,” she said. “If they had done the basic interviewing of their client and investigation, they would have known they had a defense, and they would have used that to either negotiate a plea deal with a benefit of a life sentence, or they would have gone to trial because they had a defense.”

Christopher Slusher, one of Dorsey’s trial attorneys, declined to comment when reached by CNN Thursday. The other, Scott McBride, did not immediately respond.

In a previous appeal, both lawyers testified the flat fee did not affect the decisions they made in the case, and both could have requested more money if they needed it, court records show. The courts dismissed that appeal after a three-day hearing.

In the years since, however, the Missouri State Public Defender has done away with paying flat fees to attorneys in death penalty cases: In a letter included with Dorsey’s petition, its director writes the practice was found to violate guidelines by the American Bar Association, which says flat fees in such cases are “improper.”

Former Missouri Supreme Court Justice Michael Wolff, another of Dorsey’s advocates, described this element of Dorsey’s case as a “rare failing of the legal system itself” in his own letter to the governor.

Wolff was on the state Supreme Court when it upheld Dorsey’s direct appeal, he wrote, but the justices were not aware of the flat fee arrangement at the time. This “defect,” he said, “undoubtedly influenced everything,” and should warrant a life sentence.

Executing Dorsey, Wolff added, “will dishonor our system of capital punishment.”

‘Extraordinary rehabilitation’

Dorsey’s petition strongly emphasizes what it calls his “extraordinary rehabilitation,” which his advocates say merits a commutation to life in prison.

“If Brian Dorsey has not been rehabilitated, then the word ceases to have any meaning at all,” the petition says.

Dorsey’s petition points to his work as a staff barber as just one illustration of this rehabilitation. For 11 years, he has cut the hair and shaved the beards of wardens, staff and chaplains at the Potosi Correctional Center, trusted with tools that he could otherwise use to harm people.

“The Brian I have known for years could not hurt anyone,” one corrections staffer wrote in support of Dorsey’s request for clemency – one of several quoted by his petition, which redacts the staffers’ names for their privacy. “The Brian I know does not deserve to be executed.”

Were Dorsey’s sentence to be commuted, he’d like to continue his work as a barber, Crane said, as well as his Sunday phone calls and talking with his family, all of which are “meaningful enough for it to be a life worth living.”

“He has seen his work and service he’s providing the prison is both a way to be atoning,” she said, “and a way to feel like he is giving back or doing something positive, in spite of or because of the horrible thing he did.”

“The death penalty is supposed to be reserved for the worst of the worst, that’s what the US Supreme Court has told us,” Crane said. “And what Brian’s clemency package is about and the support attests to is that there’s no question that Brian is not the worst of the worst.”

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