Dennis Skillicorn is dead, but the Public Interest Litigation Clinic is still very much alive

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon never called Dennis Skillicorn‘s lawyer at the Public Interest Litigation Clinic to say that he’d denied Skillicorn’s petition for clemency. Scott Holste, the governor’s press secretary, wrote up a press release that was sent to media outlets shortly after 5 p.m. yesterday, but nobody notified Jennifer Merrigan, Skillicorn’s lawyer. As a result, Skillicorn himself didn’t find out that he was denied clemency until after Merrigan read it on the The Kansas City Star‘s Web site, almost an hour after the press release had been issued.

An hour might not seem like much, unless it’s one of someone’s final hours on earth. And it’s more than an act of courtesy to let a condemned man’s lawyer know that the petition has been denied — it’s part of the legal process.

The scene at the Public Interest Litigation Clinic’s offices last night wasn’t as tense as one might expect. Interns with open laptops joked and ate pizza while researching case law for last-minute motions. Merrigan herself worked on an emergency motion for a stay of execution, to be submitted to the “death clerk” of the Missouri Supreme Court, arguing that the state’s clemency process is “so grotesquely flawed that it violates due process of law.”

Yes, there’s a death clerk.