October 15th, 2025 Local News
Bonne Terre, Mo. (KFMO) - A Missouri man who murdered a state trooper 20 years ago has been executed.
48-year-old Lance Shockley was put to death by lethal injection Tuesday evening at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre. The execution took place just after 6 p.m. using a dose of pentobarbital, according to the Missouri Department of Corrections.
Shockley’s final visit was with his two daughters and a friend. His last meal, served late Tuesday morning, consisted of three packs of oatmeal, peanut butter, water, and two sports drinks.
In a final statement released earlier in the day, Shockley shared a Bible verse from the Book of John:
“So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”
Shockley was convicted in 2009 for the ambush killing of Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Carl Dewayne Graham, Jr. Investigators said Shockley shot the trooper outside his home near Van Buren in March 2005. Graham had been investigating Shockley for leaving the scene of a fatal crash that killed one of Shockley’s friends.
Prosecutors said Shockley used a rifle to shoot Graham from a distance, severing his spinal cord, before walking up and firing again with a shotgun.
The Missouri Supreme Court set Shockley’s execution date earlier this year. Several appeals and requests for clemency were denied, including a final plea to Governor Mike Kehoe on Monday.
Kehoe said Shockley “received every legal protection afforded to him under the Missouri and United States Constitutions,” adding that his conviction and sentence would stand “for his brutal and deliberate crime.”
Shockley is the first person executed in Missouri in 2025.
According to the group Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty, eight men remain on the state’s death row, and there are currently no active death warrants.
