BONNE TERRE, Mo. — A St. Louis County man is set to be executed for a 1996 double murder. The execution will be allowed to continue, the governor's office announced Monday.
Two and a half decades after James and Zelma Long were murdered in their rural De Soto home their daughter, Angela Rosener, still struggles to accept that they're gone.
"It's just been hard to comprehend that they're not here,” Rosener said.
Their killer, Carman Deck, is set to be executed Tuesday evening in Bonne Terre and Rosener says she plans to be there for one reason.
"Peace of mind,” Rosener said. “I know that doesn't sound very nice."
Deck was convicted three separate times of killing the Longs.
"It was just like you were reliving it over, and over, and over,” Rosener said.
Each time the death penalty was overturned on appeal.
"Carman's death sentences are unconstitutional because it took the state three times to have a sentencing that any court said was ok,” said defense attorney Elizabeth Carlyle.
That's why groups like Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty pushed for leniency for Deck.
"The state just gets mulligan after mulligan to continue to pursue death even though they're violating the constitutional rights of the defendants,” said Elyse Max, the organization's executive director.
Deck's legal team waited for the Supreme Court to step in and take up the case.
"No one is suggesting that Carman Deck should get out of prison and go home tomorrow,” Carlyle said.
"We need to come together and determine that life without parole is a harsh enough sentence,” said Max. “It is death by incarceration.”
Missouri Governor Mike Parson announced the execution would be allowed to continue in an emailed press release Monday morning.
"Mr. Deck has received due process, and three separate juries of his peers have recommended sentences of death for the brutal murders he committed," Governor Parson said in the press release. "The State of Missouri will carry out Mr. Deck's sentence according to the Court's order and deliver justice."
His victim's family sees no alternative after what he did to their family.
"He's a criminal,” Rosener said. “He doesn’t need to be pardoned or whatever else. He killed two people in cold blood."
"Executing Carman Deck, unfortunately, will not bring them back,” said Carlyle. “Doing it unfairly and unjustly really doesn't serve any purpose either."
Baring a last-second stay of execution, Carman Deck is scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Bonne Terre.