ST. LOUIS (NewsNation) — A Missouri inmate is scheduled to be executed by injection Tuesday evening in conviction of killing his cousin and her husband in 2006.

Despite petitions from more than 70 correctional officers and a former judge to spare the man’s life, Gov. Mike Parson decided not to intervene, turning down 52-year-old Brian Dorsey’s request for clemency, CBS News reported.

“The pain Dorsey brought to others can never be rectified, but carrying out Dorsey’s sentence according to Missouri law and the court’s order will deliver justice and provide closure,” Parson said.

SCOTUS declines appeals

The Supreme Court denied two appeals filed by Dorsey’s lawyers Tuesday morning, declining to stop his execution, according to a CBS News report.

An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court centered on the $12,000 flat fee for Dorsey’s court-appointed trial attorneys. The appeal argued that with the flat fee, his lawyers had a financial incentive to resolve the case quickly. They encouraged Dorsey to plead guilty, but with no demand that prosecutors agree to life in prison instead of the death penalty.

Another federal court appeal focused on how Missouri injects the fatal dose of pentobarbital. The written protocol calls for the insertion of primary and secondary intravenous lines. But it offers no guidance on how far the execution team can go to find a suitable vein, leaving open the possibility of an invasive “cutdown procedure,” Dorsey’s attorneys say.

Missouri’s execution protocol allows for “surgery without anesthesia” if the typical process of finding a suitable vein to inject the lethal drug doesn’t work, lawyers for a death row inmate say in an appeal aimed at sparing his life.

The procedure involves an incision that could be several inches wide and several inches deep. Forceps are used to tear tissue away from a vein that becomes the injection point.

Brenner said Dorsey faces a higher-than-normal risk of needing a cutdown because he is obese. His veins also might be compromised because he is diabetic and a former IV drug user.

Dorsey’s attorneys also had asked the Missouri Supreme Court to stay the execution because the Department of Corrections acting director, Trevor Foley, has not been confirmed by the state Senate and is, therefore, unqualified to oversee an execution. The court denied that request Friday.

Dorsey would be the first person in Missouri put to death this year after four executions in 2023. Another man, David Hosier, is scheduled for execution on June 11 for killing a Jefferson City woman in 2009.

Nationally, four men have been executed so far in 2024 — one each in Alabama, Texas, Georgia, and Oklahoma.

Sarah and Ben Bonnie Killings

Dorsey was convicted in the 2006 murders of his cousin, Sarah Bonnie, and her husband Ben in New Bloomfield.

Prosecutors said that before the killings, Dorsey called Sarah Bonnie seeking to borrow money to pay two drug dealers who were at his apartment.

Dorsey went to the Bonnies’ home that night. After they went to bed, Dorsey took a shotgun from the garage and killed both of them before sexually assaulting Sarah Bonnie’s body, prosecutors said.

Sarah Bonnie’s parents found the bodies the next day. The couple’s 4-year-old daughter was unhurt.

Dorsey surrendered to police three days after the killings.

Attorneys for Dorsey said he suffered from drug-induced psychosis at the time of the crime.

72 officers rally behind Dorsey

In prison, he’s gotten clean and is reportedly remorseful of the killings.

More than 70 corrections officers tried to get Parson to commute Dorsey’s sentence from death to life in prison without the possibility of parole, vouching for his rehabilitation.

“The Brian I have known for years could not hurt anyone,” one officer wrote. “The Brian I know does not deserve to be executed.”

“There isn’t a nicer guy than Brian. He is one of the most pleasant people we know. He doesn’t deserve to be executed. We know that he was convicted of murder, but that is not the Brian Dorsey that we know,” the 60 officers wrote in their letter. “We urge you, Governor, to exercise your authority under the Missouri Constitution to commute Brian’s sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.”

Dorsey has reportedly served as the barber for several officers for 17 years now.

The Associated Press and NewsNation’s Caitlyn Shelton contributed to this report.