Originally published on June 20, 1995

Lawyers for convicted killer Larry Griffin fought Monday to delay his execution, even as a three-member panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals here lifted a stay of execution granted Friday.

Hours after the stay was lifted, a federal judge in Jefferson City issued a temporary restraining order blocking Griffin's execution by injection. State Attorney General Jay Nixon immediately asked the 8th Circuit to set aside the restraining order. The Court of Appeals did not act on the request Monday; a ruling today is expected.

Griffin, 40, was scheduled to die at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday at the Potosi Correctional Center for a drive-by shooting 15 years ago.

Griffin said he was devastated by the appeals court action and said he was tired of the ups and downs of his case.

"The state is putting an innocent person to death," he said, speaking in a slow monotone. "To me, that is murder."

Gov. Mel Carnahan was reviewing pleas that he spare Griffin but said he had found no reason to stop the execution.
Griffin was convicted of capital murder in the drive-by shooting of Quintin Moss on June 26, 1980. Moss was shot 13 times as he stood at a St. Louis street corner. He was suspected of killing Griffin's brother, Dennis Griffin, earlier that year.

A three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit lifted the stay Monday afternoon in a 20-word order. No reason was cited. The stay had been granted by Judge Charles A. Shaw after Griffin's attorney argued that he had found another man who claimed he had seen the murder and said Griffin wasn't involved. Nixon promptly filed to vacate the stay.

Kent Gipson, Griffin's attorney from the Capital Punishment Resource Center in Kansas City, said he would ask that all the 8th Circuit judges review the case and issue a stay.

Late Monday, U.S. District Judge Scott O. Wright in Jefferson City issued the restraining order pending the outcome of a hearing on a suit by 36 death row inmates who claim that the use of lethal injection in executions is unconstitutional.