Posted on 10/17/2025 1:25:03 PM PDT by Morgana
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe is defending his pro-life beliefs this week after he denied clemency to a convicted murderer and is facing criticism from activists who oppose the death penalty.
Kehoe, a Republican, rejected last-minute appeals to halt the execution of Lance Shockley, who was convicted of killing Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Carl Dewayne Graham Jr. in 2005. Shockley was executed by lethal injection Oct. 14 in Bonne Terre, Missouri, marking the first execution since Kehoe took office as governor, Missouri news station First Alert 4 reported.
“The murder of Missouri State Highway Patrol Sergeant Carl DeWayne Graham, Jr., who was investigating Lance Shockley’s criminal actions at the time, was an attack not only on a dedicated law enforcement officer, but on the rule of law itself,” Kehoe said in a statement. “Violence against those who risk their lives every day to protect our communities will never be tolerated. Missouri stands firmly with our men and women in uniform.”
According to Kehoe’s office, Graham had been investigating the murder of Jeffrey Bayless, a passenger killed while riding in a car with Shockley, and Shockley was suspected of driving under the influence. Shockley later went to Graham’s home and shot him and was convicted of first-degree murder with three aggravating factors.
Death penalty opponents said the move contradicts Kehoe’s campaign promise to protect life.
“We had understood through your announcements that you are a pro-life individual serving the best interest of people in our state in that capacity, and quite frankly, the action that you took at this point to say that you would not exercise clemency is exactly the opposite of that,” activist Jeff Stack said, according to First Alert 4.
Kehoe rejected the criticism, saying his pro-life position remains unshaken.
“I’ve said forever that I’m a defender of innocent life,” the governor said, according to the outlet. “Those young babies that have never had the chance to make any decisions that unfortunately become the victim of abortions, I’ll always stick up for that life as long as I’m in this office and anywhere else. I think that’s much different than somebody who murdered in cold blood a law enforcement officer, a hero in our state.”
Liberals want to kill innocent babies, but let murders live.
Exactly. Biblical law called for the death penalty in numerous situations. Murder is one of those.
Pro-life is about defending the innocent. Babies and victims are innocent. Criminals, who kill, are not innocent.
Until the United States stops this, the death penalty is fine in my belief.
I used to be against the death penalty because we have the capacity to keep dangerous people in captivity where they could never again kill.
But:
Release mechanisms: Individuals with life sentences can be released through parole, executive clemency (like commutations), or by court order.
We don’t fulfill the capacity to keep them in captivity.
The death penalty belief that I now have? Have at it! Let God sort it out.
Anti-death penalty folks call the death penalty legalized murder.
Then wouldn’t a prison sentence be legalized kidnapping?
I’m sick and tired of such people. Perhaps they should spend a day visiting the relatives of the murdered person. Contemplate the innocence life that was cut short. Then maybe spend a week just sitting next to the grave of the victim.
Maybe that will get their minds right.
Not to mention providing murderers a lifetime, consequence free environment where they can kill other prisoners, guards, or other prison staff.
The death penalty IS pro-life. It protects the lives of those within the prison. A convict serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole has nothing to lose. If the threat of execution is off the table, what prevents a prisoner from killing a cellmate, or a guard, or anyone in that prison he doesn’t like?
Donald Henry Gaskins served a life sentence during the middle of the Furman v. Georgia mess. In 1982, he killed inmate Rudolph Tyner.
The result?
A sit down in electricity at Broad River nine years later.
When fetuses commit murder, he’ll deny them clemency, too.
I wrestle with my pro-life position, while at the same time supporting the death penalty.
I definitely believe in not killing the unborn.
I just question how I can be pro-life yet then say someone on death row should die..
It is troublesome.
I think that a convict sentenced to life or a very long term should be given the option of assisted suicide aka MAiD.
Anti-death penalty people are hypocrites as they do not oppose the death penalty for the unborn.
Abortion is the death penalty.
This is such horse manure but is to be expected after the Pope weighted into the issue.
The Babylon Bee pointed this out this absurdity in their article “Pope Condemns God For Instituting The Death Penalty”
Such is the frustration with the dilemmas found in Christianity, where psychopathic murders should face harsh treatment and babies should be nurtured. Fortunately, for the Pope his costume gives him instant comfort and creditability to resolve any conflict found within Classical Christianity and his chosen philosophy. It does appear though that except for Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII things have generally gone downhill once the Papal Estates became the Papal States.
Concerning the legitimacy of the death penalty, I like the statement C. S. Lewis made on the subject. He said, “"Does loving your enemy mean not punishing him? No, for loving myself does not mean that I ought not to subject myself to punishment - even to death. If one has committed a murder, the right Christian thing to do would be to give yourself up to the police and be hanged. It is therefore in my opinion, perfectly right for a Christian judge to sentence a man to death. It is no good quoting, "Thou shalt not kill." There are two Greek words: the ordinary word to kill and the word to murder. And when Christ quotes that commandment, He uses the murder one in all three accounts, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And I am told there is the same distinction in Hebrew.
The Pope’s statement is certainly helpful in deflecting criticism about the Democrat Party position on abortion, which seems like a pagan sacrament required for membership. By a 220-210 margin, the House of Representatives passed the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, with only one Democrat voting in favor. So, with only one exception these Democrat legislators established a line of defense for abortion that included those born alive despite attempted abortion. According to the logic for voting against the below bill, an infant emerging from an abortion procedure, unlike those babies residing in intensive care units, was considered by Democrats as harmful medical waste, and not human. The personnel in attendance were not only absolved from any criticism in failing to provide care but instead were required to intervene to murder the baby. Read the bill to see if that is not the most reasonable interpretation. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/118/hr26/text?adlt=strict&toWww=1&redig=CC7BEBFFF32F48ADB9D0825ACEB90034
I wrestle with the death penalty too. I try to decide whether I could be the one who pushes the button or pulls the lever. It’s difficult.
“is facing criticism from activists who oppose the death penalty”
I oppose the activists who oppose the death penalty.
Another FReeper posted that once convicted, give murderers 30-90 days before execution. They can use that time to make peace with God and get saved. Then... it’s lights out.
I think that criminals in that situation can request the death penalty, and that it be expedited. I suppose that is assisted suicide.
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