ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ

POTOSI, Mo. — When Troy Steele writes about Brian Dorsey, he uses words like “trust,� “remarkable,� “respect� and “honor.�

Steele is the former warden at the Potosi Correctional Center, which houses death-row inmates in Missouri. Dorsey is one of those inmates. He is scheduled to die by lethal injection on April 9.

Steele is trying to save Dorsey’s life. It’s an unusual place for a warden to be, and Steele is not alone. In what is likely a first in Missouri, 60 corrections officers have signed a letter asking Gov. Mike Parson to commute Dorsey’s sentence from death to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Other corrections officers have written individual letters. They know Dorsey well because for 17 years, he’s been their barber.

“There isn’t a nicer guy than Brian. He is one of the most pleasant people we know. He doesn’t deserve to be executed. We know that he was convicted of murder, but that is not the Brian Dorsey that we know,� the 60 officers wrote in their letter. “We urge you, Governor, to exercise your authority under the Missouri Constitution to commute Brian’s sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.�

Dorsey was convicted of murdering his cousin, Sarah Bonnie, and her husband, Ben, at their New Bloomfield home two days before Christmas in 2006. ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ were brutal murders. Dorsey was in a cocaine and alcohol-induced stupor at the time. He doesn’t remember the murder, but he knows it was him.

He admits his guilt and, according to his attorney, Megan Crane of the , he has been remorseful ever since the murders. Like most death-row inmates, he has filed last-minute appeals questioning elements of his conviction.

In Dorsey’s case, his public defenders were on a flat-rate system at the time that created a conflict of interest to limit costs, Crane argues. She claims that among the failures of his defense team was not arguing that Dorsey didn’t have the capacity to deliberate over the crime, a requirement in a capital murder case, because he was in a drug-induced stupor.

Dorsey’s support from corrections officers is another sign of how far Missouri strays from national norms on the death penalty. issued in December pointed out that Missouri is one of only five states to carry out death sentences last year, along with Florida, Oklahoma, Texas and Alabama.

All five states are dominated by Republicans. But even in the GOP, there is a growing crack in the concept that state resources should be used to put people to death, no matter how heinous their crimes.

A group of Missouri Republicans has filed a bill in the Legislature this year to abolish the death penalty.

“I think morally, I feel obligated,� said state Rep. Chad Perkins, R-Bowling Green, announcing the bill. “Anyone who says they’re pro-life should feel a little conflicted on this topic — because if you’re pro-life then I think you’ve got to look at it and say you’re that way from the beginning to the very end. And I don’t think that the government should have a monopoly on violence.�

As Dorsey awaits his fate, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell is trying to slow down the execution of another man on death row. Last week, Bell wrote the Missouri Supreme Court, asking the judges to hold off on issuing an execution order for Marcellus Williams. The county’s Conviction Integrity Unit is investigating Williams’ conviction in the murder of former Post-Dispatch reporter Felicia Gayle in 1998.

Last year, for the first time, reported that more Americans believe the death penalty is administered unfairly than those who don’t. Twenty-nine states have abolished the death penalty through legislation or executive action.

A remorseful barber named Brian Dorsey, with the support of the corrections workers whose hair he cuts, should add to the momentum for Missouri to join that list.

“I am a conservative and am always for the victims and their families,� one officer wrote in a letter to Parson. “Being in a death row prison and living in that type of environment for so long and not getting into trouble is remarkable. … I would like to see you commute his sentence of death to life without the possibility of parole, due to the way he has lived and inside the prison.�