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Thread: George Mercer - Missouri Execution - January 6, 1989

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    George Mercer - Missouri Execution - January 6, 1989


    Karen Keeton


    George Mercer




    Summary of Offense: Convicted for the murder of Karen Keeten, 22, in the early morning hours of August 31, 1978

    Victim: Karen Keeton

    Time of Death: 12:09 a.m.

    Manner of execution: Lethal Injection

    Last meal: Barbecue steak, ribs, frech fries, tacos, burritos and salad.

    Final statement: "Look out for one of my shipmates down here."

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    January 7, 1989

    Missouri Puts Killer to Death In Tavern Waitress's Slaying

    JEFFERSON CITY, Mo., Jan. 6 — A convicted killer was put to death by injection early today for the murder of a tavern waitress, becoming the first Missouri inmate to be executed since 1965.

    The man, George Mercer, 44 years old, was injected at 12:03 A.M., lost consciousness three minutes later and was pronounced dead at 12:09 A.M., the authorities said. About a dozen demonstrators carrying candles gathered outside the Missouri State Penitentiary to protest the execution.

    On Thursday the United States Supreme Court, by a vote of 7 to 2, refused to stay the execution, and Gov. John Ashcroft did not block it. Mr. Mercer was the 105th person put to death in the United States since the Supreme Court allowed states to restore the death penalty in 1976. Shocked by Denial of Stay

    Mr. Mercer was convicted of the 1978 rape and murder of Karen Keeton, a 22-year-old tavern waitress, at his home in Belton, near Kansas City. He had been on Missouri's death row longer than any other inmate.

    A prison spokesman said that when the warden, Bill Armontrout, told Mr. Mercer the stay had been denied, ''Bill described it as sort of a look of shock. Mercer did make the statement that it was in the hands of the Maker.''

    Since October, Missouri has scheduled four executions that were halted by the courts, including one for Mr. Mercer.

    According to evidence at his trial, friends took Ms. Keeton to Mr. Mercer as a ''birthday present.'' His 11-year-old daughter was at home at the time of the assault, in which Mr. Mercer forced the woman to engage in sexual relations with him at gunpoint before killing her. Found Religion in Prison

    In a 1981 interview, Mr. Mercer said that he had not killed the woman and that adverse publicity had helped convict him. He said he had found religion in prison. ''I'm a new man in my way of thinking,my attitude toward life and everything,'' he said, ''The Lord's done this to me.''

    Missouri reinstated a capital punishment law 12 years ago. The last person executed was Lloyd Leo Anderson, who was executed in the gas chamber in 1965. The Legislature changed the method to execution by injection last year.

    Sixty-six other men and a woman are facing the death penalty in Missouri.

    http://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/07/us...xecuted&st=nyt

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