Missouri set to execute David Hosier for murder of former lover. Here's what to know
Death row inmate David Hosier is set to be executed in Missouri on Tuesday, which would make him the state's second execution of the year and the nation's seventh.
Hosier, 69, is set to be executed by lethal injection for 2009 murder of his former lover, Angela Gilpin, a mother of two sons who was working to repair her marriage and escape Hosier, according to court records.
Hosier has maintained his innocence since his conviction and recently told the Kansas City Star: "You cannot show remorse for something you did not do."
Republican Missouri Gov. Michael Parson rejected Hosier's last petition for clemency on Monday, saying that "he displays no remorse for his senseless violence."
Here's what you need to know.
What is David Hosier convicted of?
Sometime between 2008 and 2009, Hosier got involved romantically with Angela Gilpin, who had separated from her husband. When Gilpin decided to end the affair and reconcile with her husband, Hosier got angry.
Two weeks before she was killed, Gilpin applied for a restraining order against Hosier and was looking to move apartments, writing to her landlord that she could no longer live next to Hosier.
"He scares me. I don't know he will do next," she wrote, according to court records.
The day before the killings, Hosier left a voicemail for a friend saying that he was going to "finish it" and called another friend to say that he was going to "eliminate his problems," court records show.
The next morning, a neighbor found Gilpin's and her husband Rodney's bodies at the threshold of their Jefferson City apartment. They had been shot to death.
In Gilpin's purse was an application for a protective order from Hosier that said "he knows everywhere I go, who I go with, who comes to my home," adding that he was stalking and harassing her every day.
Hosier was arrested in Oklahoma later that day following a pursuit and a standoff, after which Hosier told police: "Shoot me and get it over with," according to court documents.
Has David Hosier appealed?
Attorneys for Hosier have argued that the trial attorneys failed to call a medical professional to explain to jurors how a 2007 stroke had affected Hosier's mental state. The attorneys have also argued that the judge that presided over the trial and sentencing had a conflict of interest, having prosecuted Hosier in 1998 for not paying child support.
The Missouri State Supreme Court rejected Hosier's appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case in August 2023.
The Federal Public Defender's office produced a video pleading for clemency for Hosier. In the video, multiple family members point to the death of Hosier's father when he was 16 years old as the beginning of a downward spiral.
"He's been angry with all the women in his life, including me and my mother and it was not like that for him before my dad died," Hosier's sister, Kay Schardien, says in the clemency video. "My dad's death was just like a crater and David fell into that crater."
In denying Hosier's clemency petition on Monday, Parson said in a statement that Gilpin "had her life stolen by David Hosier because he could not accept it when she ended their romantic involvement."
"For these heinous acts, Hosier earned maximum punishment under the law," he said. "I cannot imagine the pain experienced by Angela’s and Rodney’s loved ones but hope that carrying out Hosier’s sentence according to the court’s order brings closure."
When will David Hosier be executed?
Hosier is scheduled to be executed shortly after 6 p.m. CT on Tuesday, June 11. The window for the execution runs for 24 hours, according to the Missouri Department of Corrections.
The execution will be carried out at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, about an hour south of St. Louis.
How will David Hosier be executed?
Hosier will be administered a five-gram dose of pentobarbital in accordance with the state of Missouri's lethal injection protocol.
Lethal injection is considered a "primary method" of execution in all jurisdictions that use the death penalty in the United States, though Alabama has executed one inmate with nitrogen gas this year and plans another one in September.
Who will witness the execution?
The Attorney General of Missouri declined to provide the state's execution witness list or comment on the execution.
Hosier's attorney, Jeremy Weis, is set to be among the execution's witnesses, as well as reporters for the Associated Press, Missourinet and the Kansas City Star.
Hosier's spiritual advisor, the Rev. Jeff Hood, will in the chamber during the execution. Hosier has developed a close relationship with Hood as the execution day approaches.
“We talk, just trying to get prepared for the state wanting to murder you," Hosier told the Kansas City Star, adding that though he may have supported the death penalty following his father’s death, he no longer does so after having gone through the system.
“I can’t see by any justification, the death penalty as being anything but cruel and inhumane,” Hosier told the newspaper. “The state says it’s illegal for us to kill somebody, but they can sanction a murder and it’s A-OK, no big deal.”