A Missouri man convicted of murdering a state trooper two decades ago was executed Tuesday evening, marking the state’s first execution of 2025, as reported by Fox News.

Lance Shockley, 48, was put to death by lethal injection shortly after 6 p.m. at the state prison in Bonne Terre. He was convicted in 2009 of killing Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Carl Dewayne Graham Jr. in March 2005 near the trooper’s home in Van Buren.

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Prosecutors said Shockley waited for hours outside Graham’s residence before shooting him first with a rifle and then with a shotgun as the trooper exited his patrol car. Shockley was sentenced to death two months after his conviction.

During his final moments, witnesses reported that Shockley’s head was propped on a pillow as he looked toward his family and appeared to speak briefly to a woman behind the soundproof glass. He then rested his head back and stopped talking about 90 seconds later.

According to corrections officials, Shockley’s final visitors Tuesday morning were his two daughters and a friend. His last meal consisted of three packs of oatmeal, peanut butter, water, and two sports drinks.

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In a written statement, Shockley cited a passage from the Book of John: “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.”

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The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Shockley’s final appeal earlier Tuesday, and Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe denied his clemency request a day earlier.

“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,” Kehoe said in a statement.

Shockley’s attorneys argued that prosecutors failed to present direct evidence linking him to the murder.

Defense lawyer Jeremy Weis said during a discussion at the University of Missouri School of Law that “the state’s case remained circumstantial. The murder weapons were never found. There were disagreements between the ballistics experts hired by the prosecution.”

Prosecutors countered that Shockley had asked about Graham’s residence before the killing and attempted to dispose of a box of .243-caliber ammunition around the same time. Witnesses also placed him near the area before the trooper’s death.

Authorities said the motive was linked to an ongoing investigation by Sgt. Graham into a 2004 car crash that killed Shockley’s best friend. The trooper was reportedly preparing to charge Shockley with involuntary manslaughter for leaving the scene of that crash.

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Shockley became the first person executed in Missouri this year and the state’s first since December 3, 2024, when Christopher Collings was executed for the sexual assault and murder of a 9-year-old girl. No additional executions are scheduled in Missouri for the remainder of 2025.

He was one of two people executed in the United States on Tuesday. In Florida, 72-year-old Samuel Lee Smithers was executed for the 1996 murders of two women whose bodies were found in a pond, extending that state’s record number of executions for the year to 14.

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