New Appeal Launched in Chain of Rocks Bridge Conviction

This week’s execution of Marlin Gray for his role in the 1991 rape and murder of two women on the Chain of Rocks Bridge in St. Louis leaves Reginald Clemons as the only member of the convicted gang of four whose sentence is yet to be carried out. The State Supreme Court is expected to decide, soon, on Clemons’ execution date – and lawyers for the condemned killer are appealing again. This latest appeal revisits claims made in earlier appeals – that certain prospective jurors were excluded when they expressed reservations about imposing the death penalty. Clemons’ attorneys say Missouri should put the execution on hold, pending the outcome of two similar cases being considered by the U.S. Supreme Court. Two other men convicted in the Chain of Rocks killings are serving prison sentences – one for life, the other for 30 years.