Michael Tisius, 42, will receive a lethal injection at 18 p.m. (Wednesday, at 1 a.m. in France) in Bonne Terre Penitentiary in central United States, unless the Supreme Court grants him a respite in extremis. According to court documents, on June 22, 2000, he and his girlfriend went to the Randolph County Jail, where he had previously been incarcerated for a misdemeanor, under the pretext of bringing cigarettes to his former cellmate.
A request for clemency rejected
After exchanging several minutes with the guards, he pulled out a pistol and shot them in the head. One died immediately, the other after receiving another volley of bullets. Michael Tisius then tried to open his friend's cell, without success, and fled with his girlfriend. Their vehicle broke down a little further away and they were arrested the next day.
The young man had been sentenced to death for murder in a first trial, which had been cancelled on procedural grounds. The sentence was upheld in a second trial in 2010. Since then, Michael Tisius' lawyers have multiplied, in vain, the appeals to try to save him, highlighting in particular the difficulty of his childhood and the control exercised over him by his former co-detainee, older.
On Monday, Missouri's Republican Gov. Mike Parson denied a request for clemency, saying the case had "been carefully and fairly considered at every stage of the legal process." On the same day, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal based on his young age: 19 at the time of the crime, which his defenders said should have saved him the death penalty.
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It remains seized of a final request: Michael Tisius' lawyers say they recently discovered that one of the jurors in the 2010 trial was illiterate, which they say should have disqualified him. The state of Missouri criticized a delaying tactic and asked the high court to give the green light to the execution. If it takes place, Michael Tisius will be the 12th convict executed since the beginning of the year in the United States, in only four states: Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Florida.
