Death Row killer executed for shooting jailers as 'immature' teen despite outcry
A Death Row inmate convicted of killing two jailers when he was just 19 has been put to death despite condemnation of his sentence from far and wide.
Michael Tisius, now 42, died from lethal injection at the Missouri state prison in Bonne Terre today. It was the 12th execution in the US this year.
He killed Leon Egley and Jason Acton at Randolph County Jail on June 22, 2000 during a failed bid to help another inmate escape.
Tisius' execution did not come without outcry - the death penalty is a contested topic in the US - and advocates for the inmate also have said he was largely neglected as a child and was homeless by his early teens.
Groups including the American Bar Association, Missouri State Public Defender’s Office, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and even the Vatican in Rome had all opposed the execution.
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Lawyers said Tisius was neglected as a child (ATTORNEYS FOR MICHAEL TISIUS)
Michael Tisius (Uncredited/AP/REX/Shutterstock)The ABA wrote in a letter to Missouri governor Michael Parson: "In particular, the ABA opposes the death penalty for certain categories of individuals who have unique vulnerabilities that make them less culpable than the average offender.
"Michael committed two murders when he was an immature 19-year-old whose underlying brain defects and dysfunction caused him to behave like a much younger individual."
Tisius committed his horror crimes when he was just 19 and his lawyers urged the US Supreme Court to block the execution and appealed against it. They said a juror at Tisius' sentencing hearing was illiterate, which would violate the state's law.
He was 18 in 1999 when he was jailed on a misdemeanour charge for pawning a rented stereo system.
Tisius was executed despite pleas from legal, human rights and religious groups to spare his life (ATTORNEYS FOR MICHAEL TISIUS)Tisius was about to be released in June 2000 at the county Jail in Huntsville when he and fellow inmate Roy Vance discussed a plan in which the latter would help Vance escape once he was free, according to court records.
Vance once reportedly bragged that Tisius was “a kid in a grown man’s body and I knew I could manipulate him into what I wanted him to do.”
Just after midnight on June 22, 2000, Tisius went to the jail accompanied by Vance’s girlfriend, Tracie Bulington. They told Egley and Acton that they were there to deliver cigarettes to Vance. The jailers didn’t know that Tisius had a pistol.
Michael Tisius as a baby with his parents and older brother in 1981 (ATTORNEYS FOR MICHAEL TISIUS)At trial, Bulington testified that she looked up and saw Tisius with the gun drawn, then watched as he shot and killed Acton. When Egley approached, Tisius shot him, too. Both officers were unarmed.
Tisius found keys at the dispatch area and tried to open Vance’s cell, but couldn’t. When Egley grabbed Bulington’s leg, Tisius shot him several more times.
Tisius and Bulington fled after the gruesome killing but the car they were travelling in broke down in Kansas later that day.
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Tisius confessed to the crimes when he was arrested. He had only made it around 130 miles from the jail.
Tisius as a teen (ATTORNEYS FOR MICHAEL TISIUS)
Artwork by Tisius (ATTORNEYS FOR MICHAEL TISIUS)Both Bulington and Vance are in jail serving life sentences.
Attorneys for the defence argued that the killings were not premeditated. Tisius’ defence team issued a video last week in which Vance said he planned the escape attempt and manipulated Tisius into participating.
Another Missouri execution is scheduled for August 1. Johnny Johnson was convicted of sexually assaulting and killing a six-year-old girl in St. Louis County in 2002.
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