BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) – A man who killed two people in a drug dispute and a sheriff’s deputy in a subsequent shootout was put to death Wednesday in what could be Missouri’s last execution for some time.
Earl Forrest died by injection for the December 2002 deaths of Harriett Smith, Michael Wells and Dent County Sheriff’s Deputy JoAnn Barnes. The 66-year-old Forrest declined to make a final statement.
As his execution began, he mouthed words to his adult daughter who was among the witnesses. He stopped speaking within seconds of being injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital, but showed no outward signs of distress.
He was pronounced dead minutes later.
“We know this execution will not bring JoAnn back, but it destroyed an evil person that otherwise would be still walking this earth,” the deputy’s family members said in a statement in which they also described Barnes as a pillar of her rural community and a major influence in establishing a fire department there and later serving as its chief.