JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Missouri governor refuses to halt execution of serial killer Joseph Franklin, set to die Wed.
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ST. LOUIS (AP) -- The Missouri Supreme Court and Gov. Jay Nixon continue to weigh requests to halt the execution of Joseph Paul Franklin, with time dwindling before the serial killer is scheduled to be put to death.
Franklin's execution is scheduled for 12:01 a.m. Wednesday at the prison in Bonne Terre, Mo. It would be the first execution in Missouri using a single execution drug, pentobarbital.
Franklin is on death row for killing Gerald Gordon outside a suburban St. Louis synagogue in 1977.
It was one of up to 20 killings believed committed by Franklin, a white supremacist who targeted blacks and Jews in a cross-country killing spree from 1977 to 1980. He was convicted of seven other murders but the Missouri case was the only one that resulted in a death sentence.