Gov. Jay Nixon has commuted the sentence for a man scheduled to die by injection Wednesday to life in prison without parole
KIRKSVILLE, MO -- Gov. Jay Nixon has commuted the sentence for a man scheduled to die by injection Wednesday to life in prison without parole.
The governor's office made the announcement Monday afternoon in the case of Richard Clay. Clay was convicted in the 1994 killing of a Southeast Missouri man, but has maintained he was innocent.
In a brief statement, Nixon says he is convinced Clay is guilty of killing Randy Martindale of New Madrid. The governor's statement doesn't say why he commuted the sentence.
The execution would have been the first in Missouri since 2009 and just the second since 2005 as the courts have considered whether Missouri's three-drug execution method could potentially cause cruel and unusual punishment for the inmate.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKTVO