Who gets clemency in Missouri?

Dennis Skillicorn has been working his butt off to repay society for the debts of his crimes. But the last death row inmate to be granted clemency in Missouri didn’t have to do anything at all — he was spared thanks to divine intervention.

Darrell Mease was on death row for a brutal triple homicide he committed in 1988. He’d staked out the road leading to the home of Lloyd Lawrence, his mentor in the meth-manufacturing business, and killed Lawrence, his wife, and their grandson, Willie, with multiple shotgun blasts.

Mease’s execution date was set for January 27, 1999, but he wasn’t worried — in prison, he became a born-again Christian and had experienced a religious vision in which he learned he would never be executed.

As it turned out, he was right. Mease’s execution date coincided with a 31-hour visit to St. Louis by Pope John Paul II. Realizing this, the Missouri Supreme Court quietly changed Mease’s execution to February 10, 1999.

But the Pope is like Santa — he sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake, and he knows when you’re trying to hide an execution from him. During his visit, the Pope’s representatives met with then-Gov. Mel Carnahan and asked him to spare Mease’s life.  Later, at the Vespers service at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis, the Pope came down from the alter to personally ask Carnahan to spare Mease.

Who says “no” to His Holiness? A day later, Carnahan granted Mease’s clemency.   

Here’s a good story from NPR on Mease’s lucky day.