an execution in Missouri after a legal marathon

In 1996, Carman Deck killed an elderly couple, James and Zelda Long, in suburban St. Louis. He has always admitted his responsibility for the crime. According to the Kansas City Star newspaper, the Missouri Supreme Court overturned the verdict of a first trial in 2002, on the grounds that his lawyers had poorly defended him. In particular, they had failed to expose his difficult childhood in foster families.