State prison inmate John Clayton Smith is to die just after midnight tonight for two murders in Canton in 1997. Although Smith announced more than two years ago that he did not want to pursue any appeals, others have filed appeals in his name. The Missouri Supreme Court rejected an appeal last week. The Governor has two clemency appeals before him, filed by the Missouri Catholic Conference and by Smith’s former lawyer. Smith stabbed his former girlfriend to death, then stabbed her stepfather to death. He slashed the former girlfriend’s mother, but she survived. Smith would be the second prisoner executed in Missouri this year.
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