Death Row prisoner’s most basic final meal before execution for trooper’s killing

Death Row prisoner Lance Shockley was convicted in 2009 of ambushing and fatally shooting Trooper Graham outside his home near Van Buren. His last words have been revealed

Hours before his execution for the 2005 killing of Missouri Highway Patrol trooper Carl DeWayne Graham Jr., convicted murderer Lance Shockley was served his final meal on Tuesday at the state prison in Bonne Terre.

Corrections officials said Shockley, 43, requested items from the canteen including: peanut butter, three packs of oatmeal, water and two sports drinks.He was executed by lethal injection following a series of failed appeals that spanned more than a decade.

The execution was Missouri’s first under Gov. Mike Kehoe, who rejected pleas from opponents of capital punishment to halt the procedure. Kehoe called the killing “a brutal and deliberate crime” that represented “an attack not only on a dedicated law enforcement officer, but on the rule of law itself”.

Shockley was convicted in 2009 of ambushing and shooting Trooper Graham near his home in Van Buren. Prosecutors said Graham had been investigating Shockley in connection with a fatal car crash.

Despite a jury deadlock during sentencing, a Missouri judge imposed the death penalty – a decision critics have described as an unjust loophole in state law.

Last week, death penalty opponents delivered a petition with more than 31,000 signatures urging the governor to delay the execution and review claims of innocence.

Shockley maintained his innocence until his death. In a written final statement, he said: “So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”

Meanwhile, the final meal of a Death Row killer who tortured his fiancée’s baby daughter to death during an “exorcism” has been revealed. Blaine Milam, 35, was given a lethal injection after being sentenced to death for the murder of 13-month-old Amora Carson in East Texas in 2008.

Milam, whose execution had been postponed twice before, said: “I would like to give a special thanks to all of you for showing me kindness, compassion, empathy, love and support and believing in me” before he was put to death at the Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville.

Milam’s final meal before his last moments was a big one, which included a cheeseburger, oven-fried potatoes, green beans, pinto beans, sliced bread, scrambled eggs, country gravy, a sausage patty, pears, biscuits, tea and water.

His final words, revealed to the public shortly after the execution was carried out, added: “Thank you for everything that y’all have done. I would also like to thank the directors of chaplaincy of TDCJ for opening up the faith base program on death row and allowed me to be accepted into it to find Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.”

For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.