Gov. Mike Parson has had to decide the fate of several prisoners who have been sentenced to death. When their lives have been on the line, each time Parson has chosen to have the state execute them, instead of granting the prisoners mercy. He explained how these decisions weigh on him.
“It’s probably one of the most difficult decisions you ever have to make, no matter who you are, no matter what you believe, to carry that out,” he said.
Parson will no longer have to call those shots because his final term as governor ends in January.
“When it comes to the moment that you’re the one who has to make the decision, and ultimately, you’re the one who gets to do it, has to do it, however you want to look at it, it’s never easy. There’s no way you take those things very lightly,” Parson told Missourinet.
Parson, a Republican, is a former Polk County sheriff.
“Because I have seen the other side of that, where someone’s life has been abruptly taken away,” he said. “I don’t like that either. So, it’s like there is nothing good about seeing death. There’s just really not. If you work the homicide, let’s just say you work it from that end, you think it is so brutal what happened to somebody, and you just hate it for that person. And you really don’t like working that crime scene. You know it’s your job, but you still have somebody there that’s not going to get another breath. They’re not going to get to say the last famous words.”
Governor-elect Mike Kehoe, a fellow Republican and current lieutenant governor, is scheduled to take the oath of office on Jan. 13.
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