Deck was accused of fatally shooting James and Zelma Long in the back of the head and robbing them in 1996 when he was 30 years old. Police said he confessed to the killings, but Deck’s defense claimed in the trial that it was a false confession.
Deck’s first sentence was overturned on appeal due to a mistake in the jury’s instructions. He was sentenced to death for the second time, but it was overturned by the US Supreme Court, which said Deck’s shackles in court during the sentencing phase may have affected the jury.
A third jury returned the death sentences in 2008, but a federal judge overturned the sentence, agreeing with Deck’s defense that there was not enough evidence in the third phase of the sentence to justify the death sentence.
In 2020, a federal court of appeals ruled that the judge’s decision was wrong and reinstated the death sentence. Further appeals to the US Supreme Court were dismissed.
“Justice was praised tonight,” said Ann Presit, director of the Missouri Penitentiary. Deck was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. CT.
Elizabeth Carlisle, Deck’s lawyer, called his execution “unfair and immoral,” saying Deck had suffered a pattern of abuse, neglect and abandonment, which is mitigating evidence that the Missouri Supreme Court called “substantial.” “
Close family members have taught him to steal, the lawyer said, leading to a prison sentence that “turned him from a nonviolent thief into a man who committed two horrific murders,” the lawyer said in a statement.
The third jury did not hear anyone who could testify about his “horrifying childhood,” she wrote.
“Due to the lapse of time caused by the state of Missouri, the jury did not hear a single living witness who knew Karman before the crime,” Carlisle said. “This failed process simply provides insufficient safeguards to take Karman’s life. Life imprisonment without parole would be a fair and adequate punishment for him. “
Members of the Long family witnessed the execution, but no members of Deck’s family, according to a spokesman for the correctional department.
Deck’s execution is the fifth this year in the United States, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
CNN’s Jennifer Feldman contributed to this report.
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