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AG Koster to Mo. Supreme Court: set dates for 19 death sentences

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster is urging the State Supreme Court to set execution dates for 19 death sentences. Koster says no legal barrier is barring the high court from moving forward with the executions. 

Koster says 10 cases of capital punishment have already been awaiting execution dates for over 3 years. He gave the court an additional 9 names today and says there is no legal ground for delaying punishment.

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"If the Supreme Court does not act in these types of cases, then the people of Missouri have no way to complete the process of justice in these matters," Koster said.  "It's incumbent upon the Supreme Court to give us a response one way or another, but I don't think silence is an option."

There had been a question of the legality, and supply, of the so-called "three-drug cocktail" Missouri used to carry out lethal injections.

Koster says that issue has been resolved ever since the Department of Corrections recommended an alternative to sodium thiopental. 

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Adam grew up on a cherry farm in northern Michigan. He holds a BA in economics from Kalamazoo College. Adam's radio career began in 2003 at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine. He went on to cut his teeth filing stories for Maine Public Radio. Before coming to St. Louis Public Radio in 2006, Adam was was an international journalism fellow at Deutsche Welle in Bonn, Germany. He has regularly filed features for various shows and networks including NPR, PRI, Marketplace and the BBC. He received a Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellowship for the 2011-2012 academic year.