State Supreme Court won't stop execution

ST. LOUIS -- The Missouri Supreme Court on Monday refused to halt the execution of Stanley Hall, despite claims that the condemned killer of a St. Louis County woman 11 years ago is mentally retarded. Within hours of the rejection without explanation by the state's high court, Hall's attorney appealed to the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Gov. Matt Blunt also was weighing a clemency request. Hall, 37, is scheduled to die by injection at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday at the Potosi Correctional Center for the 1994 murder of Barbara Jo Wood.

His execution would be the 62nd since the state renewed the death penalty in 1989, but the first since John Clayton Smith was put to death Oct. 29, 2003.

Hall attorney Nelson Mitten said his client was disappointed by Monday's ruling by the state Supreme Court. Hall's wife, Stephanie Hall, said, "He's holding strong. He's forgiven himself, God's forgiven him."

The U.S. Supreme Court banned executions of the mentally retarded in 2002, and Missouri issued a similar ban a year earlier.

In an appeal with the state Supreme Court on Thursday, Mitten wrote that he recently discovered an IQ test taken when Hall was 7 showing a score of 57, which would indicate he was mentally retarded. Mitten said Hall's trial lawyer failed to cite the test.

But subsequent testing has shown Hall's IQ generally in the 70-75 range, which Attorney General Jay Nixon characterized as borderline mentally retarded, making Hall eligible for the death penalty. Nixon said the latest claim was one more attempt to delay the process.

"I think it's another step toward the completion of a long trip through the justice system for the Wood family, who suffered at the hands of this violent man," Nixon said. "His own experts testified at the penalty phase he was not mentally retarded."

Hall grew up in St. Louis, and was often in trouble. He had spent time in prison for shooting a fellow drug dealer and a bystander. On Jan. 15, 1994, he and a friend borrowed a car and drove to South County Mall in search of a car to steal.

The men approached Wood as she pulled her 1991 Geo into a parking spot -- she worked at a store in the mall. They pulled a gun and drove her to the McKinley Bridge over the Mississippi River.

Wood was forced out of the car and shot. Still struggling and pleading for her life, Hall lifted her over the bridge railing. She dropped 90 feet into the icy river. Witnesses notified police, who captured Hall moments after the crime.

Hall confessed. Wood's body was found 7 1/2 months later about 70 miles downstream.

Stephanie Hall said her husband is a different man now. In prison, she said, he has become a mentor to younger prisoners, encouraging them to turn their lives around. He also has participated in a program in which he meets with troubled youths.

"Rather than end his life, allow him to stay and do all those good things, even if it within the walls of the prison," Stephanie Hall said. "If he saves even one person, wouldn't it be worth saving his life?"

Missouri was among the leaders in executions for many years -- its 59 from 1989 through 2002 were third only to Texas' 220 and Virginia's 80 during the same period.

In a January interview with The Associated Press, Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronnie White said the recent decline is partly due to the fact that prosecutors are more reluctant to seek the death penalty, partly due to "a more deliberative approach" by the court since five Democratic appointees have been appointed.

In the past two years, the court has overturned about half the death sentences it has considered, and the death row population has declined to 54 from 67.