Missouri executes man for 1998 murder

Paul Goodwin, 48, was put to death early Wednesday, the 10th man executed in Missouri this year. That tops the state's previous high of nine executions, in 1999, and matches Texas for the most in the U.S. this year.

Goodwin sexually assaulted Joan Crotts in St. Louis County, pushed her down a flight of stairs and beat her in the head with a hammer. Goodwin was a former neighbor who believed Crotts played a role in getting him kicked out of a boarding house.

Efforts to spare Goodwin's life centered on his low IQ and claims that executing him would violate a Supreme Court ruling prohibiting the death penalty for the mentally disabled.  

An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and a clemency petition both claimed that Goodwin is mentally disabled, making him ineligible for the death penalty. Gov. Jay Nixon denied clemency and the Supreme Court declined to halt the execution, without comment.

The court also denied a second petition that questioned Missouri's use of an execution drug purchased from an undisclosed compounding pharmacy.

Goodwin's attorney, Jennifer Herndon, said his IQ had been tested at 73. His sister, Mary Mifflin, wrote in a statement that her brother remained childlike, even in prison. She said the death penalty "is not a just punishment for his crime — an act that occurred out of passion, not premeditation, by a man with the mental capabilities of a child, not an adult."

The Missouri attorney general's office responded to the Supreme Court petition by citing testimony at Goodwin's trial, where a psychologist testified that Goodwin's IQ is low but not low enough to be considered mentally disabled.

The Supreme Court banned the execution of mentally disabled people with a ruling in 2002 and ruled in May this year that a state must examine the defendant’s broader ability to function rather than relying solely on IQ. 

Goodwin received special education as a child but still failed several grades, Mifflin wrote. He relied on relatives and his girlfriend to help with such tasks as buying groceries and paying bills, she said.

When the girlfriend died, Goodwin wasn't capable of handling the grief and turned to alcohol, which was a factor in his attack on Crotts, Mifflin wrote.

Goodwin was sorry for the crime, Herndon said.

But Crotts' daughter, Debbie Decker, told The St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Goodwin deserves no mercy.

In the mid-1990s, Goodwin lived in a St. Louis County boarding house that was next door to where Crotts, a widow, lived. The two were involved in several verbal confrontations.

On March 1, 1998, Goodwin entered Crotts' home and confronted her. He sexually assaulted her, pushed her down the basement stairs and struck her head several times with a hammer. She died at a hospital.

He cinfessed to the crime after his arrest.

Wire services