AFTER 5 TRIALS, JUSTICE IS FINALLY CARRIED OUT

Walter Barton execution is first during pandemic, after seven delays

Associated Press
May 19, 2020

BONNE TERRE, Mo. -- A Missouri man was put to death by lethal injection Tuesday for fatally stabbing an 81-year-old woman nearly three decades ago, the first U.S. execution since the coronavirus pandemic took hold.

, had long maintained he was innocent of killing Gladys Kuehler, and his case was tied up for years due to appeals, mistrials and two overturned convictions. His fate was sealed when neither the courts nor Gov. Mike Parson intervened.

Barton breathed heavily five times after the lethal drug entered his body Tuesday evening, then suddenly stopped. In his final statement released prior to his execution, Barton said: “I, Walter ”Arkie” Barton, am innocent and they are executing an innocent man!!”

Barton was the first person executed in the U.S. since Nathaniel Woods was put to death in Alabama on March 5. Soon after that, efforts to limit the spread of the coronavirus shut down the U.S. economy and led to strict limits on social distancing, including inside prisons. Three states have put aside executions over the past 2½ months.

A federal appeals court on Sunday overturned a 30-day stay of execution granted by a judge two days earlier. The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday afternoon denied Barton’s attorney’s request for a stay of execution.

The victim, Gladys Kuehler, operated a mobile home park in the town of Ozark, Missouri, near Springfield. In October 1991 she was found dead in her bedroom. She had been beaten, sexually assaulted and stabbed more than 50 times.

Barton often spent time at the mobile home park. He was with her granddaughter and a neighbor on the evening of Oct. 9, 1991, when they found Kuehler dead in her bedroom.

Police noticed what appeared to be blood stains on Barton’s clothing, and DNA tests later confirmed it was Kuehler’s. Barton said the blood must have been transfered when he pulled Kuehler’s granddaughter away from the body. The granddaughter first confirmed that account but later testified that Barton never came into the bedroom. A blood spatter expert at Barton’s trial said the three small stains likely resulted from the “impact” of the knife.

In recent court filings, Barton’s attorney, Fred Duchardt Jr., cited the findings of another blood spatter expert. Lawrence Renner examined Barton’s clothing and boots and concluded the killer would have had far more blood stains.

Duchardt said three jurors recently signed affidavits calling Renner’s determination “compelling” and saying it would have affected their deliberations. The jury foreman said that based on the new evidence, he would have been “uncomfortable” recommending the death penalty.

“I don’t know how anybody could look at the evidence now and convict him,” Duchardt said.

Barton was executed in Bonne Terre, Missouri, about 60 miles south of St. Louis, at a prison that has no confirmed cases of the virus. Strict protocols were in place to protect workers and visitors from exposure to the coronavirus.

Everyone entering the prison had their temperatures checked. Face coverings were required, and the prison provided masks for those who didn’t have them.

Several employees clocking in and out for the day, without masks, came into the same room used by media prior to and after the execution. They remained more than six feet away from the lone reporter in the media room at the time.

Witnesses were divided into three rooms. Those witnesses include an Associated Press reporter and other journalists and state witnesses, and people there to support Barton. No relatives or other supporters of the victim attended.

Other states, including Ohio, Tennessee and Texas, have postponed executions after attorneys argued that pandemic-related closures prevented them from securing records or conducting interviews for clemency petitions and court appeals.

Attorneys also expressed concerns about interacting with individuals and possibly being exposed to the virus. And, they’ve argued that the execution process, which includes placing prison workers and witnesses in close proximity to each other, could lead to spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

The last execution in Texas, the nation’s busiest capital punishment state, was Feb. 6. Seven executions that were scheduled since then have been delayed. Six of the delays had some connection to the pandemic while the seventh was related to claims that a death row inmate is intellectually disabled.