Missouri set to execute death row inmate David Hosier for 2009 murders after governor denies clemency

Missouri was planning to carry out its second execution of the year on Tuesday after Gov. Mike Parson denied a clemency request filed by inmate David Hosier.

Hosier, 69, maintained his innocence in the double homicide for which he was sentenced to death. He filed a clemency petition following several previous appeals, including one that the Missouri Supreme Court rejected five years ago when it unanimously upheld the state’s decision to execute him. But the authority to commute Hosier’s sentence or stay his execution ultimately rests with the governor, and some lawmakers in recent days have appealed to Parson to spare his life.

Hosier was placed on Missouri’s death row in 2013 after being convicted of capital murder in the 2009 deaths of Angela Gilpin and Rodney Gilpin in their Jefferson City home. The governor, who supervised 10 executions from the beginning of his term, he said Hosier killed the couple “out of jealousy,” echoing the prosecution’s argument during his criminal trial.

Hosier was convicted of fatally shooting the Gilpins during an armed robbery after having a romantic relationship with Angela Gilpin. She and her husband were murdered about a month after Angela Gilpin ended her affair with Hosier, according to court documents.

“Ms. Angela Gilpin was robbed of her life by David Hosier because he could not accept it when she ended their romantic involvement. He shows no remorse for his senseless violence,” Parson said in a statement Monday, advertising that Hosier’s request for clemency was denied. “For these heinous acts, Hosier received the maximum punishment provided by law. I cannot imagine the pain felt by Angela and Rodney’s loved ones, but I hope that the execution of Hosier’s sentence in accordance with the Court’s order brings closure to the process.”

Hosier already had a criminal record and possessed firearms when the Gilpins were killed, and after the murders, Angela Gilpin’s purse contained a request for an order of protection against him, as well as a statement saying she feared Hosier might shoot her and Rodney, the documents show.

Parson’s office said Tuesday that “Hosier, with a decades-long history of violence against women, would not let Angela reconcile with Rodney, stalking and harassing her for weeks before murdering her and her husband.”

Before the Gilpins’ case, Hosier was convicted and sentenced to prison for assaulting and seriously injuring another woman.

Over the years, Hosier’s defense attorneys attempted to appeal the death sentence on the grounds that no physical evidence linked Hosier to the murders. “No confessions, no eyewitnesses, no fingerprints, and no DNA of David or other personal effects were found at the crime scene,” they wrote in their 2019 appeal. The attorneys also argued that Hosier’s prior assault conviction should not have was admissible evidence at Gilpin’s trial because it unfairly prejudiced the jury.

His recent clemency petition focused primarily on Hosier’s personal life. Much of the petition centered on a stroke Hosier suffered in 2007, which lawyers said left him with lasting brain damage, as well as the 1971 murder of his father, an Indiana State Police sergeant who his defense characterized it as a traumatic event that took his mental state. health problems in adulthood. Hosier served in the United States Navy and as an emergency medical technician and firefighter in Jefferson County. His health has deteriorated in recent months, with the petition citing heart problems that intensified in early May.

U.S. Reps. Cori Bush and Emmanuel Cleaver, both of Missouri, urged Parson to grant Hosier’s clemency petition in a letter to the governor last week. They referenced the inmate’s medical problems and mental illness and suggested that his former attorneys’ choice to withhold “vital medical information” during the criminal trial could amount to “a potential violation of Mr. Hosier’s Sixth Amendment rights.” .

“Mr. Hosier’s debilitating condition further emphasizes the need for leniency in this case. He poses no threat to those around him and deserves humane treatment as he suffers from heart failure,” Bush and Cleaver wrote in that letter.

Hosier told the Associated Press that he was dissatisfied with his current defense team’s approach to the clemency request, which he felt should have focused more on the lack of forensic evidence linking him to the Gilpins’ deaths and less on his childhood.

“They did exactly the opposite of what I wanted them to do,” Hosier said of the clemency request, according to the AP. “I told them I didn’t want the ‘boo-hoo, woe is me.’ This all happened 53 years ago, okay? It has nothing to do with why I’m sitting here right now.”