Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster is urging the State Supreme Court to set execution dates for 19 death sentences. Koster says no legal barrier is barring the high court from moving forward with the executions.
Koster says 10 cases of capital punishment have already been awaiting execution dates for over 3 years. He gave the court an additional 9 names today and says there is no legal ground for delaying punishment.
"If the Supreme Court does not act in these types of cases, then the people of Missouri have no way to complete the process of justice in these matters," Koster said. "It's incumbent upon the Supreme Court to give us a response one way or another, but I don't think silence is an option."
There had been a question of the legality, and supply, of the so-called "three-drug cocktail" Missouri used to carry out lethal injections.
Koster says that issue has been resolved ever since the Department of Corrections recommended an alternative to sodium thiopental.
