The 4th Execution of 2017
Mark Christeson was executed on January 31, 2017 —
Missouri's first execution since May of 2016, reported the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Christeson was hours away from
execution in 2014 when the U.S. Supreme Court granted a temporary stay. This
time, though, the court allowed the execution to proceed, and Gov. Eric
Greitens declined a clemency request for Christeson, the first inmate to be put
to death since the Republican took office.
As the execution drug was administered, Christeson
appeared to mouth "I love you" a couple times to people who were gathered
to watch the lethal injection on his behalf. Soon, the inmate's eyes closed.
He was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. CST, eight
minutes after the lethal injection, a Department of Corrections spokesman said.
"It was a heinous crime. I'm just happy to see
justice finally served," said Maries County Sheriff Chris Heitman, who
witnessed the execution. "I have regrets for the family that it took so
long, but I hope it provides closure to them."
The killings of Brouk, her 12-year-old daughter,
Adrian, and 9-year-old son, Kyle, traumatized the rural area around the
south-central Missouri town of Vichy.
On Feb. 1, 1998, Christeson, then 18, and his
17-year-old cousin, Jesse Carter, decided to run away from a home outside Vichy
where they lived with a relative.
They took shotguns and went to a rural home about
half a mile away where Brouk and the children lived. The cousins planned to
steal Brouk's Ford Bronco, said Terry Daley Schwartze, who was Maries County's
prosecutor at the time of the killing and now.
When they arrived at the home, Christeson and Carter
tied the children's hands with shoelaces. Investigators said Christeson forced
Brouk into a bedroom and raped her. When they went back into the living room,
Adrian recognized Carter and said his name.
"We've got to get rid of 'em," Christeson
told Carter, according to court records.
The family was forced into the Bronco. Christeson
and Carter loaded the SUV with electronics and other items and drove to a pond.
Christeson kicked the 36-year-old mother in the ribs
and cut her throat. She told her children she loved them as she lay bleeding.
Christeson then cut Kyle's throat and held the boy
under water until he drowned. Carter held Adrian while Christeson pressed on
her throat until she suffocated, and then Carter pushed the girl's body into
the pond.
As Brouk struggled to stay alive, the cousins tossed
her into the pond, where she drowned.
Brouk's sister alerted authorities a few days later
that the family was missing. A Missouri State Highway Patrol helicopter spotted
one of the bodies in the pond, leading to a search that found the bodies of all
three victims.
Meanwhile, Christeson and Carter drove to
California, selling Brouk's household items along the way. A detective in
California's Riverside County recognized the cousins from photos police had
circulated. They were arrested eight days after the killings.
Carter agreed to testify against his cousin. He was
sentenced to life in prison without parole.
The U.S. Supreme Court intervened in 2014 amid
concerns about the ineptitude of Christeson's earlier lawyers, who missed a
2005 deadline to file a federal appeal of his death sentence — standard
procedure in death penalty cases. Attorneys for Christeson again argued that he
deserved a federal court review, and raised concerns about his mental
competence, claiming he had an IQ of 74. But this time, the courts declined to
step in.
Missouri executed 16 men from 2014 to 2015, second
only to the 23 executions in Texas over the same two years. Last year, Missouri
had just one execution, largely because most of the 25 men on the state's death
row have appeals remaining or are unlikely to be executed due to medical or
mental health concerns.
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