Herbert Smulls Execution Stayed by US Supreme Court
Missouri inmate Herbert Smulls has been granted a stay of execution by the United States Supreme Court. He was scheduled to be executed at 12:01 a.m. Central Standard Time Wednesday morning but instead was granted a reprieve pending further investigation.
"It is ordered that execution of the sentence of death is hereby stayed pending further order of the undersigned or of the Court," Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the order sparing Smulls' life.
Attorney Cheryl Pilate, who works on behalf of Smulls, was the one to draft the appeal to the Supreme Court after Governor Jay Nixon denied the request. She noted that her client was "terrified" at the prospect of being executed due to the unknown nature of the drugs being used for the procedure. Missouri is one of the states using a compound version of pentobarbital, which is made behind-the-scenes and comes from an unknown source.
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"I frankly cannot begin to tell you how distressing this situation is, that the state is going to execute a prisoner in his mid-50s who made one series of colossal mistakes that were in many ways out of character, because he is not a violent person," Pilate told the Associated Press.
Smulls was convicted of the murder of jewelry store owner Stephen Honickman in 1991. According to reports, Smulls took a 15-year-old boy named Norman Brown with him to rob F&M Crown Jewels in Chesterfield, Missouri. He shot both Stephen and his wife Florence. Florence faked her death and waited for Smulls to leave before calling for help; her husband passed away. Police apprehended Smulls just 15 minutes later, and Florence was able to identify him and testify at his trial.
"Enough already, take what you want," Florence told the jury that Stephen said with his dying words.
"It was a horrific crime," St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch said. "With all the other arguments that the opponents of the death penalty are making, it's simply to try to divert the attention from what this guy did, and why he deserves to be executed."
It's unknown what influenced Alito's decision to grant clemency.
