Reprieve Lifted, Missouri Puts Inmate to Death

POTOSI, Mo. — A convicted murderer was put to death Wednesday night in the nation’s 26th execution this year, the most since 1962.

Ricky Lee Grubbs, 33, was executed by injection at Potosi Correctional Center several hours after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a reprieve. He was pronounced dead at 9:35 p.m., said John Morris, spokesman for the state attorney general’s office.

Grubbs became the 183rd inmate executed nationwide since the Supreme Court in 1976 let states resume capital punishment. Twenty-five convicts were executed in 1987; that had been the most in any year since 47 people were put to death in 1962.

Grubbs went on Death Row in 1986 after being convicted of capital murder in the beating death of Jerry Thornton, 46, of Miner in southeast Missouri.

Grubbs lost appeals that were based on two arguments: that his slight mental retardation would make executing him cruel and unusual punishment, and that newly discovered information cast doubt on his guilt.

The U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Grubbs’ bid for a new trial on Monday.

Late Tuesday, little more than an hour before the execution had been scheduled, Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun issued a temporary reprieve. Blackmun handles emergency matters from Missouri for the high court.

On Wednesday evening, the full court voted, 6 to 3, to lift the reprieve.