The state supreme court has ordered the execution of prison inmate Richard Clay for January 12. Clay was convicted in 1995 of murdering the husband of his friend’s married girlfriend.
Clay was convicted of shooting Randy Martindale of New Madrid four times with a shotgun.
Court records show Martindale’s wife, Stacey, was having an affair with another man and offered him money to kill her husband so she could collect on the husband’s life insurance. But when her lover refused to do it, she persuaded Clay to do it. Stacey Martindale was sentenced to fifteen years in prison.
Clay’s lawyer still has avenues of appeal to stop the execution.
Missouri’s last execution was that of Dennis Skillicorn in May, 2009. Skillicorn is the only inmate executed between October, 2005 and now.
October’s scheduled execution of Roderick Nunley was called off because last-day court appeals remained unresolved.
　
　
Â
