Execution opponents say Kreutzer abused as child

ST. LOUIS -- Those trying to save the life of Paul Kreutzer are divided about why he should be spared a lethal injection.

His lawyers and death penalty opponents say that Kreutzer committed a brutal murder, but the frightening abuse he allegedly suffered as a child should be enough to excuse him from death.

Kreutzer now claims innocence, though he says he was badly abused by his adopted parents. But his parents say those abuse allegations were cooked up for Kreutzer by bad lawyers. They say those lawyers apparently thought a defense based on "mental defects" had a better chance of saving Kreutzer's life than just challenging the evidence.

Kreutzer was convicted in 1994 of raping and murdering Louise Ann Hemphill at her Pike County home on the afternoon of Sept. 2, 1992. The autopsy showed that her skull had been shattered with a baseball bat, her throat had been cut and she had been strangled with a belt.