Michael Tisius is 3rd youth offender Missouri executed. Other states know that’s wrong | Opinion

Missouri stands alone in sentencing more youths to death than nearly every state in the nation. Tonight, Missouri executed one more, proving the state would rather give young offenders a lethal three-drug cocktail instead of a second chance.

Michael Tisius, killed by Missouri at 6:10 p.m., was a manipulated, coerced and traumatized 19-year-old at the time of his crime. By all accounts, Michael had grown into a rehabilitated man and model inmate. His community benefited from his talents and kindness on a daily basis. Michael had a lot more to give and he did not deserve to die. It is an absolute abomination that Missouri is able to kill this healed man for the tragic mistake he made as a traumatized teen.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court banned the execution of anyone under 18 in 2005 (ironically, in a case involving a Missouri teen), Missouri has condemned four 19-year-olds to be killed by lethal injection. Missouri’s march to execute teenagers diverges from a strong national trend moving away from the death penalty for people convicted of crimes that occurred when they were under 21 years old. Including Michael, Missouri has now executed three of these young men, all of whom were only 19 at the time of their crimes. Another individual, also 19 at the time of his crime, sits on Missouri’s death row awaiting his execution date.

Courts are supposed to look to “evolving standards of decency” when examining the constitutionality of the death penalty — and in most states, standards of decency are evolving away from executing youth offenders. In 34 of the 50 states, executing someone under 21 is not permitted today. Four more states have not executed — or even sentenced to death – anyone under 21 in over 20 years. Only a small handful of states executed or sentenced to death late adolescents since the court’s 2005 decision. Juxtaposing against national trends, Missouri’s standards of decency continue to devolve.

Having already executed five men and women this year (including a man with compelling evidence that he was actually innocent), preparing for one more execution this summer, and urging the state Supreme Court to set yet another execution date before year’s end, Missouri is in the running to claim the title of state with the most executions in 2023. This race to the bottom is not one Missourians should want to win.

Teen offenders’ brains not fully developed

The fact that children are fundamentally and physiologically different from adults is without debate. Science has proven that our brains are not fully developed until our early- to mid-20s. These physiological differences between adolescent and adult brains have very real implications for youths’ behavior, which is marked by unchecked impulsivity, inability to know or consider risks and long-term consequences, valuing reward over risk and emotion over reason during this developmental period of life — all of which make youths categorically more susceptible to the influence and manipulation of others. But brain development also means young people are more capable of rehabilitation as they mature out of their most volatile years.

These scientific — and intuitive — distinctions between adults and youth are the reasons why the death penalty and mandatory life without parole were banned for people under 18. And they apply equally to those 17 and under, as to 18- and 19-year-olds. That truth is plainly evidenced in the more than 3,000 laws in this country limiting a person’s privileges or abilities before age 18, such as drinking alcohol or renting cars.

Michael was the poster child for what science has taught us about why youths are both less culpable for crimes they commit (even heinous crimes) and also more capable of rehabilitation than adults. At the coaching and coercion of Roy Vance, an older man he met in jail, 19-year-old Michael killed two jail guards in a botched attempt to free them both from the Randolph County Jail.

Michael was a prime target for Vance. Michael’s underdeveloped brain was impaired by a seizure disorder as well as post-traumatic stress disorder caused by his severely abusive, neglectful childhood. Vance targeted Michael because of these vulnerabilities for the precise purpose of playing a pawn in his escape plan — a fact that Vance and his accomplice at the time both admit.

“I programmed Mike for my own benefit and if it weren’t for me … Michael wouldn’t have done this,” he admits in both court documents and in video testimonial from prison. “He was just a kid. This is my fault. It only happened because of me,”

Vance’s then-girlfriend and co-conspirator in the escape plot agrees: “It was clear from the moment I met Michael that Roy had gotten into that kid’s head. Michael was only 19 years old when the crime happened. Mike was childlike. Even for his age, he wasn’t mature. Roy manipulated Michael. He knew Michael was looking for love. He knew Michael was looking for a father figure. Roy got to know Michael and then brainwashed him.”

Indeed, Dr. George Woods, a neuropsychologist who evaluated Michael, explained that Michael “has an increased vulnerability to being groomed, which was observed throughout his life.”

Rehabilitated prisoner matured into model inmate

But Michael had unquestionably matured into a rehabilitated 42-year-old man. He was a valued member of his prison community in part because of his ability to beautify spaces for other prisoners with stunning murals he painted in the special needs and veterans units. His rehabilitation is a fact validated by the word of the former Potosi Correctional Center warden, who watched Michael grow up over the years, and called him a model inmate in a letter urging Gov. Mike Parson to grant him clemency.

Yet, Parson denied Michael Tisius’ request for clemency. This callous decision overlooks public outcry opposing yet another execution of a Missouri youth. Parson ignored grave concerns about significant constitutional problems with Michael’s sentence, including an illiterate juror and abysmal representation by attorneys severely limited by the low flat fee the state paid them for this death penalty case. And Parson ignored members of the jury who originally sentenced Michael to death and recently came forward to ask the governor to grant clemency. These jurors recognized the redemptive change in 42-year-old Michael and they did not want his blood on their hands.

Our “pro-life” governor had an opportunity to save Michael’s life. He had an opportunity to show mercy. Instead he chose blind adherence to an outdated, eye-for-an-eye punishment of revenge. We can only hope that Missouri’s indifference to human life mobilizes Missourians to action before we slip any further from the Show-Me State into the Shame-Me State.

Megan Crane and Amy Breihan are co-directors of the Missouri office of the MacArthur Justice Center, a national, nonprofit law firm dedicated to protecting civil rights and fighting injustice in the criminal legal system.