By Bob Priddy, Missourinet [Audio report]
Murderer Dennis Skillicorn went to his death this morning with an apology and with faith.
In his final statement, Skillicorn said he had lived every day for
the last 15 years with remorse for his murder of Richard Drummond, who
had stopped to offer a ride to Skillicorn and two others when their car
broke down. Skillicorn lost his last appeal to the State Supreme Court
just moments before he was taken to the death chamber. He was
pronounced dead at 12:34 this morning.
Skillicorn was implicated in five murders, but he said in his last
statement that God and a good woman had changed his life. His statement
was read by Corrections Department spokesman Jacqueline LaPine.
"The sorrow, despair and regrets of my life would most certainly
have consumed me if not for the grace and mercy of a loving and living
God who saved me," Skillicorn wrote in a final statement read to
reporters by Department of Corrections' spokesman Jacqueline LaPine.
"As a husband, I've been overjoyed to know the love of a woman unlike
any I've ever known. She shall forever be by soul mate and I hers."
While in prison, Skillicorn married Paula Barr, a reporter for the
Kansas City Star who covered his trial as a crime reporter. She no
longer works for the Star. They were married in 1997 at the Potosi
prison, where Skillicorn was housed until being moved to Bonne Terre
for the execution.
Attorneys for Skillicorn kept up the legal battle until the very
end. The State Supreme Court turned aside half-a-dozen appeals for
stays of execution in the final day, the last one shortly before
midnight. That delayed the execution for about half an hour.
Governor Nixon denied a clemency request earlier in the evening after receiving a final briefing from his counsel.
"After careful deliberation, I have denied this petition," Nixon
said in a written statement. "After more than a decade of legal
challenges, both the conviction and the death sentence of Dennis
Skillicorn have held up under extensive judicial review by the state
and federal courts. "
Nixon noted in his statement that the two murders for which Dennis
Skillicorn was convicted in Missouri are not his only murder
convictions. He also received life sentences after pleading guilty to
murdering an Arizona couple in 1994, a few days after the Drummond
murder.
"These factors were taken into consideration in the clemency process
and played a significant role in my decision," Nixon stated.
Supporters of a commutation for Skillicorn noted his many good works
while in prison, but it was a decision made on August24th of 1994 that
cost Skillicorn his life. Skillicorn, along with Allen Nicklasson and
Tim DeGraffenreid had been driving back to Kansas City the day before
after a road trip to buy drugs when their car broke down on I-70. They
tried to have it repaired, but it broke down again the next day.
Richard Drummond, a 47-year-old supervisor from AT&T, stopped to
offer the three a ride, not knowing the three were armed after
burglarizing a nearby house. Nicklasson held a 22-caliber pistol to
Drummond's head and ordered him to drive to a secluded area in
Lafayette County where Nicklasson took Drummond into the woods and
killed him.
Skillicorn and Nicklasson dropped DeGraffenreid off in Blue Springs
and kept driving Drummond's car until it got stuck in the Arizona
desert. They walked to a nearby home where Joe Babcock offered to pull
them out of the sand. As Babcock was trying to scoop sand from the
car's tires, Nicklasson killed him. They then went back to the house
and killed his wife, Charlene, and took the Babcock's vehicle.
DeGraffenreid by then had been arrested and led police to Drummond's
body. Skillicorn and Nicklasson were caught in the San Diego,
California area six weeks after Drummond's death.
DeGraffenreid pleaded guilty to second degree murder and is in
prison for life. Nicklasson and Skillicorn were tried separately. Both
got death. Nicklasson is still awaiting execution.
Skillicorn had been involved in an earlier murder. In 1979, he and
two other young men burglarized a Kansas City home. One of the others
used a shotgun to kill an 81-year-old man. Skillicorn, then 20, was
convicted of second-degree murder and was sentenced to 35 years in
prison. He was paroled in 1992.
Skillicorn supporters say the man who died was not the same man who
was involved in the killings. They pointed to his work caring for sick
and dying inmates, or his work in a program helping families of
inmates. One person says he has made prison safer. Another has called
him a "calming influence" in the prison. He was the editor of
COMPASSION magazine which is sent to death row inmates and to about
4,500 other readers. Money from subscriptions has funded scholarships
for children who have lost parents to violent crime.
This was Missouri's first execution since October, 2005, when the
state put Marlin Gray to death, the fifth inmate executed that year. In
February, 2006, the state came within hours of executing Michael Taylor
for the murder of a Kansas City school girl. His case was added the
list of others that challenged the three-drug protocol used for
executions. Courts have since upheld the system used in Missouri.
Taylor remains under a death sentence. No new execution date has been
set for him.
