If Richard Clay dies Wednesday, it won't be by lethal injection. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon commuted Clay's death sentence, instead giving him life in prison without parole.
Clay was
convicted in 2004 of killing Randy Martindale in 1994 in a murder-for-hire plot. Nixon released a statement saying Clay's "involvement in this crime is clear" and "the evidence clearly supports the jury's verdict of murder in the first degree."
"Having looked at this matter in its entirety and after significant thought and counsel, I have concluded, however, to exercise my constitutional authority and commute Richard Clay's sentence to life without the possibility of parole," Nixon said.
Clay would have been executed at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.
As Plog reported last week, Clay's execution received renewed attention due to drama surrounding his conviction.
Former U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof,Randy Martindale's murder was a sordid affair. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch gives us a history lesson.a lead prosecuting attorney in Clay's case, was found to have had
less-than-honest dealings in several trials. At least one former
death-row prisoner has been released because it came out that Hulshof
withheld evidence in his case. Clay's conviction was one of seven
reviewed, on the suspicion that Hulshof cheated and bullied his way
through court.
According to prosecutors, Randy Martindale's wife, Stacy, was involved in an extramarital affair with Charles Sanders and offered him $100,000 to kill her husband. The jury found that Sanders turned her down but that Clay, his friend, accepted. Stacy Martindale was convicted of second-degree murder and served 15 years in prison. Sanders received probation.
For more on the last prisoner executed by the state of Missouri, read this Pitch profile of Dennis Skillicorn.
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