Michael Tisius, who fatally shot two Missouri jailers 23 years ago, was executed Tuesday evening by lethal injection. He was 42 years old.
In June 2000, Tisius was being housed in Randolph County Jail in Huntsville, Missouri, along with Roy Vance after being jailed on a misdemeanor charge for pawning a rented stereo system. According to the Associated Press (AP), before Tisius was released on June 13, 2000, he devised a plan to help Vance escape prison.
According to documents from Missouri Supreme Court, Tisius and Vance were cellmates at Randolph. While Tisius’ sentence lasted only 30 days, Vance reportedly told Tisius that he would be jailed for about 50 years. In one of their escape plans discussed, Tisius would return to the jail with a gun, order the guards into a cell, then give the weapon to Vance, who would release all of the jail’s inmates, read the court documents.
Just after midnight on June 22, 2000, Tisius went to a county jail in Moberly, Missouri, alongside Vance’s girlfriend, Tracie Bulington, in an attempt to free Vance. Armed with a pistol, Tisius shot and killed two unarmed officers, then fled, AP reported. He was 19 at the time of the killings.
Tisius was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. at the state prison in Bonne Terre, Missouri, reported NBC News affiliate KSDK. Newsweek has reached out to the Missouri Department of Corrections for confirmation.
In his final statement, which was shared with Newsweek by the state corrections department, Tisius repeatedly apologized and said that he had hoped to “have made things right.”
“I am holding tightly to my faith,” read the statement. “It’s all I have to take with me. I am sorry it had to come to this in this way. I wish I could have made things right while I was still here.
“I really did try to become a better man,” Tisius continued. “I really tried hard to give as much as I could to as many as I could. I tried to forgive others as I wish to be forgiven. And I pray that God will forgive those who condemn me. Just as He forgave those who condemned Him.
“I am sorry. And not because I am at the end. But because I truly am sorry. And I need to say that I love you Truffle. Seacrest Out!”
According to AP, Tisius and Bulington were arrested roughly 135 miles west of Vance’s escape attempt after their car broke down in Wathena, Kansas. Tisius confessed to the crimes when taken into custody.
Both Bulington and Vance are serving life sentences, and Tisius was sentenced to the death penalty in July 2010. But his lawyers had attempted several appeals, pointing to Tisius’ young age at the time of the killings and his history of neglect as a child. According to AP’s report, Tisius was homeless by his early teens.
But Republican Missouri Governor Mike Parson declined a clemency plea for Tisius on Monday, saying in a statement that it was “despicable that two dedicated public servants were murdered in a failed attempt to help another criminal evade the law.”
“The state of Missouri will carry out Mr. Tisius’ sentences according to the Court’s order and deliver justice,” Parson added.
Newsweek previously reached out to Parson for additional comment.
A handful of the jurors behind Tisius’ sentencing had also said that they would be supportive or not object if Parson had offered the convict a life sentence in lieu of execution. According to a report from The New York Times, six jurors, including two alternates, said they would support the decision in sworn affidavits that were included in the clemency petition.
Tisius’ legal team also filed for an appeal after another juror told the attorneys that he could not read English, which is a requirement under Missouri law to serve on a jury, reported the Times. A federal judge ordered last week that Tisuis’ execution be halted while the claim was examined, but the stay was overruled by an appeals court on Friday.
Tisius’ death marks the third 2023 execution in the state of Missouri among 12 in the U.S.
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