Bonne Terre, MO — Lance Shockley was executed by lethal injection at the Missouri Diagnostic and Correctional Center on October 14, 2025, for the first-degree murder of Sgt. Carl DeWayne Graham, Jr. of the Missouri State Highway Patrol in 2005. Shockley’s execution is the first execution in the state of Missouri in 2025, according to Amnesty International.
Officer Graham was investigating Shockley for a death linked to a drunk driving incident in 2004 at the time he allegedly committed Graham’s murder. The state’s argument claimed Shockley killed the officer to prevent further investigation into the earlier crime. Shockley’s legal representation argued that this hypothesis led authorities to investigate Shockley, guided by confirmation bias, instead of taking in all of the facts.
The path leading up to this execution was filled with controversy, with anti-capital punishment advocates having pressured Governor Mike Kehoe to stay the execution. Kehoe, stating that Graham’s murder was “an attack not only on a dedicated law enforcement officer, but on the rule of law itself,” refused to block the lethal injection order, as reported by Missourinet.
Trial Controversies and Alleged Misconduct
Several errors cited by those opposing Shockley’s state-sanctioned death have raised questions over the legitimacy of the execution. According to the Stand With Lance Shockley, a support website run by those advocating for Shockley’s innocence, the evidence supporting Shockley’s conviction was solely circumstantial. Furthermore, Shockley’s attorney moved for a mistrial after the foreperson leading the jury that convicted Shockley broke Judge David Evans’ explicit rules on media consumption.
Evans had ordered the jury to avoid crime-based media so that it wouldn’t subconsciously influence their verdict. During deliberations, the jury foreperson reportedly distributed copies of his newly published crime fiction novel to other members of the jury — a story that, in some ways, eerily mirrored Shockley’s case.
Missouri DOC
The motion for mistrial was denied, and instead, Judge Evans installed a new jury foreperson for the sentencing phase. The jury failed to make a sentencing decision at the end of this phase, and Judge Evans sentenced Shockley to death.
Other factors that some believe may have impacted Shockley’s sentencing include his lawyer not putting up an adequate defense, poor ballistics analysis, and Missouri’s unique law that allows a judge to choose the death sentence in the event of jury indecision. According to the Missouri Independent, only two states allow this: Missouri and Indiana. Many others default to life in prison without parole.
Appeals and Execution
There have been many attempts to revisit Shockley’s sentence or move for a retrial, but, as Fox 2 Now explains, they were denied every time.
— Governor Mike Kehoe
“Mr. Shockley has received every legal protection afforded to him under the Missouri and United States Constitutions, and his conviction and sentence will remain for his brutal and deliberate crime.”
Prosecutors allege Shockley shot Officer Graham three times after Graham exited his patrol car near his home, paralyzing him with the first shot before shooting him in the head and shoulder. Shockley had allegedly waited for Graham for hours before committing the murder, though no eyewitness testimony was submitted as evidence. Nor was there blood, DNA, fingerprints, or a murder weapon, leading many to view this as a heavily circumstantial conviction.