A father shared a mysterious final message before his execution on death row for the murder of a police officer. Lance Shockley, aged 48, continuously professed his innocence despite being convicted of killing Sergeant Carl Dewayne Graham Junior. Shockley had requested clemency, making a plea shortly before his execution in Bonne Terre, Missouri.
Despite his appeals, the US Supreme Court denied Shockley’s requests, and he was executed in the prison’s death chamber with his head resting on a pillow. Shockley had a conversation with his loved ones in the witness room to his left, with a woman attempting to communicate with him from his soundproof chamber.
In a cryptic final written statement, Shockley wrote, “So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”
Shockley became the second person executed in the US on that day, following Samuel Lee Smithers, who murdered two women in 1996 and was given a lethal injection in Florida. Shockley was the 14th person executed in Missouri in 2025.
Protests erupted against both executions, but Missouri Governor Michael Leo Kehoe emphasized zero tolerance for violence against those who protect communities daily. He expressed unwavering support for law enforcement.
After Shockley’s execution, Sgt. Graham Jr.’s family released a statement, expressing the profound loss and emptiness caused by his death, acknowledging the irreplaceable void in their lives. They found some peace in knowing that this part of the process had concluded after many years.
Sgt. Graham Jr., aged 37, was killed in March 2005 when Shockley shot him with a rifle and shotgun outside his home in Van Buren, Missouri. Shockley’s attorneys failed in their attempts to halt the execution for DNA testing of evidence at the crime scene, arguing the untested evidence could have cleared Shockley.
With two daughters, Shockley was the first person executed in Missouri in 2025, with no further executions scheduled for the year.