Walter Barton was executed in Missouri by lethal injection on May 19, 2020 for fatally stabbing an 81-year-old woman nearly three decades ago, the first
U.S. execution since the coronavirus pandemic took hold, reported the USA Today.
Barton, 64, had long maintained he was innocent of
killing Gladys Kuehler, and his case was tied up for years due to appeals,
mistrials and two overturned convictions. His fate was sealed when neither the
courts nor Gov. Mike Parson intervened.
Barton breathed heavily five times after the lethal drug
entered his body Tuesday evening, then suddenly stopped. In his final statement
released prior to his execution, Barton said: "I, Walter "Arkie"
Barton, am innocent and they are executing an innocent man!!"
Concerns related to the coronavirus caused several states to
postpone or cancel executions over the past 2 ½ months. Until Tuesday, no one
had been executed in the U.S. since Nathaniel Woods was put to death in Alabama
on March 5. Ohio, Tennessee and Texas were among states calling off
executions.
The last execution in Texas, the nation's busiest capital
punishment state, was Feb. 6. Seven executions that were scheduled since then
have been delayed. Six of the delays had some connection to the pandemic while
the seventh was related to claims that a death row inmate is intellectually
disabled.
Barton's attorney, Fred Duchardt Jr., and attorneys for
death row inmates in the other states argued that the pandemic prevented them
from safely conducting thorough investigations for clemency petitions and
last-minute appeals. They said they were unable to secure records or conduct
interviews due to closures.
Attorneys also expressed concerns about interacting with
individuals and possibly being exposed to the virus, and they worried that the
close proximity of witnesses and staff at executions could lead to spread of
COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Barton was executed in Bonne Terre, Missouri, about 60 miles
(97 kilometers) south of St. Louis, at a prison that has no confirmed cases of
the virus. Strict protocols were in place to protect workers and visitors from
exposure to the coronavirus.
Everyone entering the prison had their temperatures checked.
Face coverings were required, and the prison provided masks and gloves for
those who didn't have them.
Six state witnesses — a reporter for a Springfield
television station, an Associated Press reporter and four department of
corrections employees — waited in a room together for about an hour prior the
execution. All six were masked. At one point, four department of corrections
officials, including Director Anne Precythe and three other officials, briefly
entered. They did not wear facial protection. The witness waiting room was
about 300 square feet.
Barton often spent time at the mobile home park that Kuehler
operated. He was with her granddaughter and a neighbor on the evening of Oct.
9, 1991, when they found her dead in her bedroom.
Police noticed what appeared to be blood stains on Barton's
clothing, and DNA tests confirmed it was Kuehler's. Barton said the stains must
have occurred when he pulled Kuehler's granddaughter away from the body. The
granddaughter first confirmed that account, but testified that Barton never
came into the bedroom. A blood spatter expert at Barton's trial said the three
small stains likely resulted from the "impact" of the knife.
In new court filings, Duchardt cited the findings of
Lawrence Renner, who examined Barton's clothing and boots. Renner concluded the
killer would have had far more blood stains.
Duchardt said three jurors recently signed affidavits
calling Renner's determination "compelling" and saying it would have
affected their deliberations. The jury foreman said, based on the evidence, he
would have been "uncomfortable" recommending the death penalty.
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