ST. LOUIS (AP) - The Missouri Supreme Court refused on Saturday to halt the execution of a deputy sheriff's killer over claims that he is mentally incompetent because of a brain injury he suffered in a sawmill accident.
Cecil Clayton, 74, is scheduled to be executed Tuesday for the 1996 shooting death of Barry County deputy Christopher Castetter. The father of three was 29 in 1996 when he went to Clayton's home near Cassville to check on a suspicious vehicle report. Authorities said Clayton shot the deputy once in the head even before he got out of his car.
The defense, which sought a hearing to make the mental incompetence case, said the 1972 brain injury left Clayton mentally impaired with an IQ of 71. Clayton also has been diagnosed with several mental disorders, including dementia.
But the court rejected the argument in a 4-3 ruling, with the majority finding that "even though the effects of his brain injury and increasing age make it more difficult for Clayton, there is no evidence that he is not capable of understanding 'matters in extenuation, arguments for executive clemency or reasons why the sentence should not be carried out' " as required under state statute.
The dissenting opinion said Clayton's attorneys had "presented reasonable grounds to believe his overall mental condition has deteriorated and he is intellectually disabled." The opinion noted that Clayton had lost 20 percent of his frontal lobe from the traumatic brain injury and said that proceeding with the execution would be a violation of the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.