Dad Lance Shockley who denied murdering police officer is executed on death row
The family of Sergeant Carl Dewayne Graham Junior said they have "some measure of peace" to see Lance Shockley given the lethal injection at the state prison in Bonne Terre, Missouri
A dad shared a cryptic final message as his last words before he was executed on death row for the murder of a police officer.
Lance Shockley, 48, had long maintained his innocence despite being found guilty of the killing of Sergeant Carl Dewayne Graham Junior. Shockley had begged for clemency, including a plea hours before the execution in Bonne Terre, Missouri.
But the US Supreme Court rejected these appeals, and Shockley’s head was elevated on a pillow in the death chamber at the prison on Tuesday. He communicated with loved ones in the witness room to his left. A woman there appeared to try to carry on a detailed conversation with him from his soundproof room.
In a cryptic written final statement, Shockley said: "So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you."
READ MORE: Killer who murdered two women nearly 30 years ago is finally executed on death rowREAD MORE: Man murders lover 7 days before she is due to give birth in horrific rampageShockley was the US' second execution yesterday, after Samuel Lee Smithers, who murdered two women in 1996, was given the lethal injection in Florida. He became the state's 14th execution in 2025.
There were protests against each execution, but Missouri governer Michael Leo Kehoe said: "Violence against those who risk their lives every day to protect our communities will never be tolerated. Missouri stands firmly with our men and women in uniform."
Following Shockley's death, Sgt Graham Jr's family issued a statement saying the grief from his loss "has left a profound emptiness in all of us that touches every part of our daily lives.
"No court proceeding, nor what happened here today can ever bring Dewayne back, or heal the hole left in our hearts. But after all these years, there is some measure of peace in knowing that this part of the process is over," the statement said.
Their 37-year-old relative died in March 2005 when Shockley shot him with a rifle and shotgun after the police officer exited his patrol vehicle outside his home in Van Buren, Missouri. Prosecutors told the court in 2005 Shockley had waited near the home for the police officer to get out of the car, as Sgt Graham Jr was investigating him for involuntary manslaughter.
Shockley’s attorneys were unsuccessful in their efforts to have state appeals courts stop his execution in order to allow DNA testing of evidence found at the scene of the killing. His lawyers argued that much of that evidence had never been tested and could have helped exonerate Shockley.
But Shockley, who has two daughters, became the first person put to death this year in Missouri, where no other executions are scheduled for 2025.