Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (John L. White|Post-Dispatch)

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon is no stranger to the death penalty. Through 16 years as state attorney general, he and his staff pursued death sentences in a long list of criminal cases. It was part of the job.

Now Mr. Nixon has a different job. As governor, he is a final arbiter of justice and mercy — the last stop before the state executes a person sentenced to death by a judge or a jury.

The Missouri Constitution gives Mr. Nixon virtually unrestricted discretion to pardon criminal convicts or reduce their punishment. He may grant or deny relief for reasons and conditions that he deems fit.

This solemn power is vested in the governor. But it matters to the people, too. They have a special interest in matters of justice and mercy when a person faces death under their authority.

An impending execution in Missouri — it would be the first since 2005 — reveals a flawed process by which clemency is considered. It’s the kind of irregularity that forever would cloud a state-ordered execution. A wise and compassionate governor would reform the process.

Dennis J. Skillicorn is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on May 20 at the state prison in Bonne Terre. He was sentenced to die in 1996 for participating in the 1994 “Good Samaritan” murder of Richard Drummond, a 47-year-old Excelsior Springs, Mo., businessman.

Mr. Drummond had stopped to aid Skillicorn and two companions, Allen Nicklasson and Tim Degraffenreid, whose car had broken down on Interstate 70 near Kingdom City. Mr. Drummond was forced to drive into a rural area in Lafayette County, where Nicklasson took him into the woods and shot him twice in the head.

Nicklasson was sentenced to death. Degraffenreid was sentenced to life in prison. Skillicorn was convicted as an accessory to murder and sentenced to death. Nicklasson has claimed that Skillicorn neither knew of his intentions to kill Mr. Drummond, nor was he present when it happened.

In his 13 years on Death Row, Skillicorn, now 49, has undergone a remarkable transformation. He helped to found and has worked to expand a hospice program at Potosi Correctional Center to aid the aging population, organizing rotating shifts of inmate volunteers who help “to bathe, clean, feed, read to and sit with inmates who are dying in prison.”

He helped to create a 4-H program at Potosi as an alternative to the conventional, “rigid and unfriendly” family visitation. The program is to help prisoners develop parenting skills and organizes monthly group visits of children and families in order to promote inmates’ dignity and minimize the isolation and shame felt by their children.

He has been active in a variety of prison programs that promote “restorative justice,” in which transgressors take responsibility for their misdeeds and work to make amends directly to victims.

With support from dozens of people, Skillicorn has petitioned Mr. Nixon for clemency. He does not seek release from prison. He asks that his life be spared so that he be permitted to live out his days in prison and continue service that might offer him some measure of redemption.

He has been a force for reason, humanity and contrition in the state prison system.

Dennis J. Skillicorn in 2000 (Photo by Jeff Peck)

Whatever one’s view of the death penalty — and we believe it should be abolished as inherently capricious, inhumane and degrading to society — Skillicorn’s petition makes a compelling case that his life be spared.

His work over more than a decade represents the precise conditions for which clemency power was created — not as a reward to him, but as confirmation of our capacity to show mercy and recognize the potential for human redemption, even from the darkest depths.

Still, governors seldom grant clemency — even in compelling cases, even when the sole remedy is to spare the life of a prisoner who never again will see the light of day outside of prison.

Victims’ understandable pain and anger works against sparing lives on Death Row. That is a practical and political reality.

Missouri law provides a counterbalance. A little known and seldom used statute permits the governor to “appoint a board of inquiry” as part of the review process in death penalty cases. The board’s purpose is to “gather information … bearing on whether or not a person condemned to death should be executed or reprieved or pardoned, or whether the person’s sentence should be commuted.”

The statute imposes “a duty (on) all persons and institutions to give information and assistance” to the board, which then makes its report and report to the governor.

Boards of inquiry provide a means for the larger community to help bear the weight of monumental decisions of life and death. The boards are not part of a permanent state bureaucracy. Prominent citizens convene to consider a single case, receiving no remuneration.

The final decision still lies with the governor. But the process allows the harsh emotional and political atmosphere to be diffused. It allows the governor’s deliberation to be informed with facts and leavened by citizens’ thoughtful analysis.

The Skillicorn case begs the independent consideration of a board of inquiry. Partly because of the merits of clemency petition, but also because of allegations that the Missouri Department of Corrections tried to impede the clemency process by denying legal counsel access to prison records and personnel.

Mr. Nixon, as attorney general, defended the Department of Corrections’ actions last fall. The Missouri Supreme Court intervened, postponed the execution and ordered the agency to cooperate.

Skillicorn’s lawyers have asked Mr. Nixon to convene a board of inquiry. As a matter of mercy, justice and to protect the integrity of the clemency process, Mr. Nixon should grant the request. Skillicorn should be given a reprieve from the May 20 execution date so the board can do its work.

The board should report and make a recommendation to the governor on this question: Should a man’s life be spared so that he might continue to work for redemption?