Missouri executes Lance Shockley, who maintained innocence in 2005 state trooper killing

Caroline Zimmerman, The Kansas City Star on Oct 15, 2025

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Lance Shockley, convicted in the fatal shooting of a Missouri state trooper, was executed by lethal injection Tuesday evening, marking Missouri’s first state execution this year and the first under Gov. Mike Kehoe, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

In 2009, Shockley was convicted in the March 2005 killing of Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Carl DeWayne Graham Jr. at his Van Buren, Missouri, home, according to The Associated Press.

Shockley has maintained his innocence since 2005, according to CBS News.

Shockley waited outside Graham’s home before shooting him from behind, severing the trooper’s spinal cord and paralyzing him, according to a Monday press release from Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe. Shockley then shot Graham in the face and shoulder, killing him.

The press release states that in 2005, Graham was investigating the death of Jeffrey Bayless, who was killed while riding in the passenger seat of a car with Shockley. Shockley was suspected of driving under the influence at the time.

Gov. Kehoe denied Shockley’s request for clemency

Gov. Kehoe denied Shockley’s request for clemency Monday, saying Shockley “has received every legal protection afforded to him under the Missouri and United States Constitutions,” according to the press release.

“Violence against those who risk their lives every day to protect our communities will never be tolerated,” Kehoe said in the press release . “Missouri stands firmly with our men and women in uniform.”

Shockley was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. Tuesday at Eastern Reception, Diagnostic Correctional Center in Bonne Terre , according to a press release from the Missouri Department of Corrections.

Shockley’s final visitors were his daughter and a friend, MDOC Communications Director Karen Pojmann told The Star in an email Tuesday evening. His last meal, served just after 11 a.m., consisted of items from the prison’s canteen: peanut butter, three packs of oatmeal, water and two sports drinks.

His final statement, issued at 8:45 a.m., was from the John 16:22 in the Bible, according to a last statement document obtained by The Star:

“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.”

Four prisoners were executed in the state of Missouri in 2024: Brian Dorsey, 52, David Hosier, 69, Marcellus “Khalifa” Williams, 55, and Christopher Collings, 49, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Legal team remembers Shockley as devout Christian who was ‘light in a dark place’

In a joint statement released to journalists Tuesday night, Shockley’s legal team said he was “let down by the courts again and again.”

“We all must confront that the refusal to test evidence and the denial of mercy are not signs of justice. They are a failure of it,” according to the statement.

The team said despite facing the death penalty, Shockley never became bitter. They remembered him as a man who knew everyone’s name and encouraged others to “see the humanity in the people who worked inside the walls of the institution,” according to the statement.

Shockley was also, the statement said, a man devout in his faith. He was often seen with his Bible.

“He sought to live his life every day as an example of the radical love of God and he poured that love unselfishly on everyone he came into contact with,” according to the statement.

Shockley, who grew up near the Current River, loved being on the water, the statement said. The team paralleled his death to a poem by Bishop Brent, which likens death to a sailboat passing over the horizon.

“We can imagine him on a boat, just ahead of us on the river,” the statement read. “In the moment that we lose sight of him, there are others who see him just coming into view.”

The team closed out their statement saying they were “privileged to advocate for him and call him a friend.”

“Each of us who have been lucky enough to know Lance are better for having had him in our lives. Lance was light in a dark place,” the statement read.

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