On Tuesday evening, a Missouri inmate was executed for killing a man over child support payments 16 years ago.
Andre Cole, 52, was put to death by lethal injection, the third executed inmate this year in Missouri. Despite numerous appeals, including one claiming Cole was mentally ill and unfit for execution, the U.S. Supreme Court proceeded to execute the man. On the day of Cole’s death, Governor Jay Nixon refused a clemency petition that raised concerns about the fact that Cole, a Black man, was convicted and sentenced by an all-White jury.
The crime occurred when Cole and wife of 11 years, Terri, with whom he had two children, divorced. The couple battled over visitation and he was upset about child support payments, authorities said.
Three years later, Cole was $3,000 behind in child support. Attorney General Chris Koster said in a statement: “Cole became angry when he learned that payroll withholding order was issued to his employer. Koster recounted Cole’s chilling pledge. “Before I give her another dime, I’ll kill (her),” Cole allegedly told co-workers, according to Koster.
Hours after the frst paycheck deduction, Cole forced his way into his ex-wife’s home by throwing a tire jack through a glass door, Koster said. He was confronted by Anthony Curtis, a friend who was visiting.
Cole used a kitchen knife to repeatedly stab Curtis, then Terri Cole. Curtis died, but Terri survived.
After fleeing the state, he surrendered 33 days later. During his murder trial, Cole said he did not bring a weapon into Terri’s home and that it was Curtis who initiated the attack with a knife. No relatives of Terri Cole or Anthony Curtis attended the execution.
Andre Cole’s brother, DeAngelo Cole, 38, of Las Vegas, said the attack was out of character for his sibling, calling it a crime of passion. “It was a one-time thing,” Cole said. “He didn’t have a history of that kind of behavior.”
Missouri is tied with Texas as the state with the most executed inmates in 2014 with 10. Missouri, who came under fire for its racially biased Ferguson Police Department and the Michael Brown shooting, has now executed 15 men since November 2013.