After Governor Mike Parson denied a mercy plea on Monday, a death row inmate in Missouri is outraged with how his lawyers handled the case.
Almost a decade after being found guilty of the 2009 murders of Angela Gilpin, 45, and Rodney Gilpin, 61, David Hosier, 69, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Tuesday.
Despite Hosier’s ongoing denials of guilt, his legal team prepared a mercy petition that highlighted the profound impact of his father’s murder on Hosier’s life. Hosier’s father, a sergeant for the Indiana State Police, was killed when Hosier was 16.
The condemned man feels that the mercy appeal should have highlighted the lack of forensic evidence tying him to the Gilpin killings.
His attorneys appealed to the Supreme Court in 2019, contending that there was a lack of witnesses to the murder he was accused of committing. That appeal failed.
Hosier contends that his lawyers did the complete opposite of what he wanted them to do. Generating pity was not something he was interested in, and he “told them so.”
As he entered a residence in 1971, Glen Hosier, David’s father, was tragically shot and killed by a murder suspect.
Attorney Larry Komp, who represents David Hosier and is also a federal public defender, did not address his client’s displeasure head-on but repeated the “pity party,” as Hosier describes it, saying that a veteran and someone whose life has been profoundly impacted by the loss of his father in the line of duty sends the wrong message when he is executed and marginalized.
On September 29, 2009, the Gilpins’ bodies were found in the hallway of Angela’s apartment in Jefferson City.
During Angela’s breakup with Rodney in 2008 or 2009, Hosier allegedly had an affair with her, which led to her murder.
Hosier was heard saying he would “do something about it” if Angela got back with her husband in the summer of 2009.
The prosecution contends that as a result of his grief over their broken romance, David Hosier killed Angela and Rodney.
After the shootings, the cops found something meaningful in Angela’s bag. They uncovered a protection order application and another document in which she voiced her concerns that Hosier might do damage to her and her spouse.
The police then began to focus on Hosier as a prime suspect.
