Richard Strong is set to be executed on Tuesday for the double murders in 2000. His daughter, who was unharmed in the knife attack, is asking Gov. Jay Nixon to stop the execution.
Missouri is set to execute Richard Strong on Tuesday for fatally stabbing his girlfriend and her 2-year-old daughter in 2000.
Strong was sentenced to death for killing Eva Washington, 23, and her daughter, Zandrea Thomas, at their home in St. Louis.
The 3-month-old daughter he had with Washington, Alyshia Strong, was found unharmed sitting next to a pool of blood in the bedroom.
Alyshia, now 14, has requested Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon to stop her father's execution, arguing in her clemency petition that she shouldn't have to lose her father as punishment for the killings.
"I understand that my father needs to face consequences and to pay for what he did, but I do not think it is right for me to lose my father as part of the punishment," she wrote.
Alyshia was raised by her grandmother, Joyce Strong, who regularly took her to visit her father in prison and encouraged their close relationship.
"I know some people probably wonder how I can have a relationship with my father given that he killed my mother, but we are very close, and I have never felt angry at hime," Alyshia said in her clemency petition. "I am thankful I have him in my life."
Alyshia's half-sibling, Lauren Strong, said their their relationship was especially strong with because of Strong's guilt and because he is trying to give her "the best possible relationship with a parent under these circumstances."
Richard Strong with his daughters Alyshia and Lauren.
On Oct. 23, 2000, Washington was stabbed 21 times and suffered five slash wounds, according to court documents. The tip of the knife used to stab her was found embedded in her skull. The toddler, Zandrea, had been stabbed nine times and had 12 slash wounds.
Police found Alyshia, just three months old, sitting on the bed next to a pool of blood and a large butcher knife. She was unharmed.
Strong told officers at the time to "just shoot me; just shoot me," when they gave chase him at the scene. After he was handcuffed, he also told the police, "I killed them."
Strong's attorneys argued that his trial counsel was ineffective as they failed to show that his violent acts were the result of an impoverished life filled with neglect, abuse, and violence, or that he suffered from seizures, had low intellectual functioning, and a family history of mental illness.
Strong is slated to be the fourth person executed in Missouri this year. He is one of the many death row inmates named as plaintiffs in a case challenging the constitutionality of Missouri's lethal injection protocol. Attorneys for the inmates have argued that the state's use of compounded pentobarbital violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment by creating a risk of unnecessary pain.
Unlike other states struggling with a dwindling or depleted supply of lethal injections, Missouri now has enough of a stockpile to carry out 16 executions, BuzzFeed News reported last week.
The state has refused to say whether the drugs came from a compounding pharmacy or were manufactured by a pharmaceutical firm, raising questions about the efficacy of the drug supply.
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/1KXF6uj
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