CAPE MEN LOSE MURDER APPEALS IN HIGH COURT

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Two Cape Girardeau men sitting on death row for murder have lost their latest appeals to the Missouri Supreme Court.

In separate decisions handed down Wednesday, the court unanimously denied requests for post-conviction relief from Russell Bucklew and Andrew Lyons. The court had previously upheld the convictions and sentences of both men.

Their avenues of appeal in state court are exhausted, according to a spokesman for the Missouri Attorney General's Office. Further actions, if taken, would be handled in federal court.

No execution dates will be set until federal court actions are resolved or the men decide against pursuing further appeals.

In their most recent appeals, both claimed ineffective counsel at trial.

A Boone County jury convicted Bucklew of first-degree murder for the March 21, 1996, shooting death of Michael Sanders, who was killed in his Cape Girardeau home. Bucklew was also found guilty of kidnapping, burglary, rape and armed criminal action charges related to the case. He was sentenced to death for the murder and a total of 95 years in prison on the other charges.

Andrew Lyons was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder by a Scott County jury for the Sept. 20, 1992, shooting deaths of his girlfriend, Bridgette Harris, and her mother, Evelyn Sparks, in their Cape Girardeau home. The jury also convicted him of involuntary manslaughter of his 11-month-old son, Dontay Harris. Lyons said he shot the baby by accident. Lyons was given two death sentences.

Both trials had been moved from Cape Girardeau County on changes of venue.

Bucklew, 32, and Lyons, 43, are incarcerated at the Potosi Correctional Center.

In his appeal, Bucklew asked the court to either set aside his death sentence or grant a new sentencing hearing. He argued his trial attorneys failed to call witnesses whose testimony could have convinced the jury to impose a lesser sentence of life in prison on the murder count and that Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle made improper comments to the jury.

The Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments in the case Oct. 4, held that the defense's decision not to call certain witnesses was a legitimate strategy move. While disapproving of Swingle's statement that Sanders' death was "the most brutal slaying in the history" of Cape Girardeau County, the court ruled that statement and others challenged in the appeal weren't improper.

Lyons' appeal, argued before the court Jan. 9, included claims his trial attorneys failed to call witnesses and introduce evidence to show he suffered from brain damage and was therefore incapable of deliberation and could not be found guilty of first-degree murder. The court rejected those claims.