HIGH COURT REJECTS MALLET'S LATEST APPEAL

The final legal obstacle has been lifted to setting an execution date for a man convicted of killing a Missouri State Highway patrol trooper in 1985, said a spokesman for the state attorney general.

Jerome Mallet's appeal before the United States Supreme Court was denied Tuesday, setting the stage for the Missouri Supreme Court to act, spokesman Scott Holste said.

Mallet, 42, had been convicted of killing highway patrol trooper James Froemsdorf of Perryville, Mo., after slipping out of handcuffs and taking the officer's gun.

Froemsdorf was shot to death by Mallett as the two sat in the trooper's patrol car on the shoulder of I-55 near the Brewer, Mo., exit a few miles north of Perryville. Froemsdorf had stopped Mallett for speeding and learned Mallett was wanted in Texas for armed robbery and probation violation.

Third rejection

The Supreme Court's ruling in Mallet's case was its third rejection of his appeals. His appeals in federal courts started in 1991.

Mallet has been on Missouri's death row since 1986.

The average time from conviction to carrying out a death sentence in Missouri is about 10 years, Holste said.

Mallet's extended life on death row was helped by his case remaining under the jurisdiction of one federal district judge for seven years. At one point, the Missouri attorney general's office attempted to hasten the process by filing a request in court for the judge to issue a decision, Holste said.

In 1999, the attorney general's office had filed a motion with the Missouri Supreme Court to set a date for lethal injection for Mallet.

Mallet had planned to make a plea to the governor for clemency, said St. Louis attorney Michael Gorla, who has represented Mallet during his appeals since 1990. However on Tuesday Gorla said he was not aware of the Supreme Court's ruling.

Few options left

Although Mallet does have a few legal options left, they are not substantial, Holste said.

"These generally don't have much of an effect," Holste said. "They are usually dealt with quickly by the courts."

The decision by the Supreme Court on Tuesday was on what Holste called a "side legal issue." The federal 8th Circuit Appeals Court had ruled to put an end to Mallet's habeas corpus appeal that his rights were violated during his hearings. The Supreme Court upheld the Appeals Court decision.

Since Missouri adopted lethal injection as its sole method of capital punishment in 1988, a total of 47 inmates at the Potosi Correctional Center.