The Missouri Supreme Court has set an October execution date for Mark A. Christeson, who killed a woman and her two children in Maries County near Vichy in 1998. He is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Oct. 29th. This will be the 9th execution in Missouri this year. Christeson’s co-defendant and cousin, Jesse Carter, received a life sentence in the case after striking a deal to testify for the prosecution. Christeson raped Susan Brouk and, with his cousin, forced Susan and her two children into her vehicle, and drove them to a neighbor’s pond, according to a court summary of the case. Christeson cut Susan’s throat with a knife. Before Susan died, he cut her son Kyle’s throat and held him in the pond until he drowned. He also pressed down on her daughter Adrian’s throat until she suffocated and pushed her body into the pond. He and his cousin then threw Susan into the pond on top of her children’s bodies, and she drowned. This was a brutal case and we need to keep the victims family members in prayer since repeating the story brings back pain from the past.
Cases like this make abolition of the death penalty more difficult due to strong reaction to the brutal nature of this kind of crime. Nevertheless, we need to continue speaking out against the injustice of capital punishment. Oct. 10th is World Day Against the Death Penalty. It was launched in 2003 by the Coalition Against the Death Penalty, an alliance of more than 120 NGOs, bar associations, local authorities and unions. The Coalition’s ultimate objective is the universal abolition of the death penalty. Please join me and Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty in an all day protest in front of the capitol building in Jefferson City on October 10th. For further details about the day call me at 816-835-0344 or email me at daryl.charron@yahoo.com
Daryl Charron, C.PP.S.
