To provide a bit of context - Smalls was found guilty of murdering a jewellery store owner during an armed robbery that he led, and also found guilty of shooting the store owners wife and leaving her for dead - Smalls was caught by police 15 minutes after the robbery whilst he was still in possession of the murder weapon and the stolen jewellery. The request for a stay of execution didn’t make reference to new evidence suggesting that Smalls was innocent.
Whether you agree with the death penalty or not, it’s likely incontrovertible that his conviction was safe in this instance, as Smalls was identified by the surviving victim he thought he had killed: Smalls was guilty of the crime he was imprisoned for.
There were three stays of execution in place preventing Missouri from carrying out the execution which were each lifted during the day in question - this suggests the decision to execute him, right or wrong, had been taken.
The fact that his legal council managed to file another request for a stay of execution at the 11th hour speaks to the tireless nature of his defence, and it’s laudable, however a request for a stay doesn’t have legal force, so what Missouri did was lawful.
