Walter Timothy Storey was executed for killing 36-year-old special education teacher on Feb. 2, 1990 in a St. Louis suburb.
Strapped to the gurney, Storey mouthed what appeared to be “I love you” to his witnesses and the family of the victim, Jill Frey.
He appeared to then start singing or chanting — it was impossible to tell because of the thick glass separating the execution room from the viewing area. Seconds after the drug was administered at 12:01 a.m., he stopped suddenly and heaved one deep final breath. He was pronounced dead at 12:10 a.m.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to halt the execution over concerns about Missouri’s secretive process for obtaining and using the lethal injection drug pentobarbital.
Four justices — Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan — would have granted the stay.
Missouri obtains its execution drug, pentobarbital, from an unnamed compounding pharmacy, and prison officials refuse to disclose details about how or if it is tested. Storey’s attorney argued that the secrecy makes it impossible to know if the barbiturate will quickly work or cause an unconstitutionally painful death.