Clemency: A week before Bobby Lewis Shaw’s scheduled execution in 1993, Governor Mel Carnahan commuted his death sentence to a sentence of life without parole. Shaw was convicted of murdering a prison guard in 1979, and had exhausted his appeals. After a two-day competency hearing, Circuit Judge Robert L. Carr ruled that Shaw was competent to be executed because he “obeys spoken instructions, he reads, watches television, and plays mind games such as cards.” Governor Carnahan, however, decided that Shaw’s death sentence was “fundamentally unfair” because the jury that sentenced him to death had not heard testimony about his brain injury or mental condition. Governor Carnahan felt there was “little doubt” that Shaw was mentally unfit for execution. Carnahan cited the testimony of doctors who said Shaw suffered from borderline mental retardation, mental illness, and probable brain damage. Doctors that examined Shaw since his conviction said he probably suffered brain damage when he was struck in the head by a brick at the age of 9. Shaw died of natural causes in 2000.
