Final Meal:
Steak, shrimp, salad and a baked potato.

Final Words:
"Tell Amy 'I love you.' And Ronnie and Darla, 'I love you.' When I see Amy again, tell her she is my love."

Internet Sources:

Capital Punishment in Missouri from Missouri.Net

Case Facts: On January 1, 1984 , Kenley came to the home where he was residing with a large number of handguns. He kept one of these, a silver .38 caliber pistol. The next day he purchased some .38 hollow point ammunition and with a friend practiced with the pistol by shooting at cans and trees. On January 3 at approximately 11:00 p.m. Kenley borrowed a car from his friend and drove to a store in Poplar Bluff. He entered and threatened to kill the salesman unless the money in the cash register was given to him. While this was happening, a female customer entered the store and was ordered to lie on the floor. When the robbery was complete, Kenley grabbed the female customer and forced her to leave with him. He forced her into the car and ordered her to perform fellatio on him. She opened the car door and jumped out of the car but was shot in the back by Kenley as she exited the car. Her wound was not fatal.

Approximately half and hour later, Kenley entered another business in Poplar Bluff and announced to the eight people inside that "This is a holdup. Everyone hit the floor." When the people in the business did not respond immediately Kenley stated "I said this is a holdup. Hit the floor. I mean business and I’ll make an example out of you." He aimed his pistol at Ronald Felts, one of the four people standing near a pool table, and from a distance of approximately 10 feet shot Felts through the temple. He died virtually instantaneously. With the occupants on the floor Kenley ordered the business owner, Ms. White, to open the cash register. He took the money and ordered White and the bartender, Randy Jenkins, to leave with him. When they reached the end of the bar, Kenley ordered Jenkins to the floor and shot him in the jaw. His wound was not fatal. Kenley then ordered White to come with him. In attempting to leave, Kenley’s car got stuck on the curb so he and Ms. White returned to the tavern to get her car. While there he threatened a fifteen year old girl if she had called the police, stating the he had already killed once and would do it again. Kenley fired a shot at a bystander and he and White left in White’s car. She managed to open the car door and jumped out. She ran back to the tavern. Kenley got control of the car and drove on.

In less than a half an hour, Kenley entered another Motel in Poplar Bluff. After robbing the establishment he ordered the proprietor at gunpoint to leave with him. The proprietor’s husband, who had been sleeping, entered the room and Kenley stated "I’ll kill you. I’ve killed already tonight and I’ll kill you." A struggle ensued and the husband pushed Kenley out the door. During their struggle, Kenley pointed the gun at the husband. It "clicked" but did not fire.

Sometime later that morning, Kenley entered a grocery store in Corning, Arkansas, and after firing a shot in the ceiling demanded a car and driver. He stated "I’ve done killed once tonight. Wouldn’t bother me to do it again." Someone in the store pointed to his own car and said the keys were in it. Kenley drove away and was arrested as he left the parking lot. He was 23 when these crimes occured. He was convicted of capital murder and was sentenced to death.

Kenneth Kenley was executed at 12:03 a.m., February 5, 2002.

Missouri Department of Corrections

National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

Kenneth Kenley (MO) - February 5, 2003

The state of Missouri is scheduled to execute Kenneth Kenley, a white man, Feb.5 for the murder of Ronnie Felts amidst a barroom hold-up in Poplar Bluff. According to the state, Kenley began a robbery spree on the evening of Jan. 3, 1984; in the process, he shot several bystanders, including Felts, who was playing pool in a local bar.

In 1991 the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals vacated Kenley’s death sentence and remanded the case for a new sentencing phase. The court held that the defense counsel’s failure to present available mitigating evidence of his medical and psychological history constituted ineffective assistance. He returned to trial two years later with new lawyers, but received the death penalty again. Although the case contains horrifying details, including a fatal gunshot to the victim’s temple, the mitigating evidence justifies use of executive clemency.

At the retrial of his sentencing phase, Kenley presented new evidence through the videotaped deposition of Dr. Manion, his psychiatrist from his teenage years, and the testimony of Lois Crownover, a social worker in the Poplar Bluff school system. These witnesses not only shed light on the tragic occurrences that haunted Kenley’s upbringing, they also traced his violent tendencies to his innocent childhood.

Dr. Manion explained Kenley’s dysfunctional family relationships, and concluded that he learned his violent methods of coping with struggles from his father. He testified that Kenley suffered from serious psychiatric problems, and noted his attempts to commit suicide.

Ms. Crownover, who knew Kenley as an 11-year-old boy, described his behavior during childhood, emphasizing his temper tantrums, wild rages, and thorough lack of cooperation. She testified that he constantly misbehaved in the classroom, bullied and threatened other children, and avoided responsibility for his actions. She attributed his problems to his unstable relationship with his father, and concluded that he endured a very troubled and unhappy childhood.

Kenley also presented records from the Farmington State Hospital, where he sought mental health treatment, as well as medical evidence of his father’s psychiatric problems. Finally, his family members and friends, and even a prison librarian whom he once took hostage, spoke out on his behalf, begging the state for a life sentence.

The jury voted for the death penalty despite Kenley’s background and personal history, and now his execution date is dangerously close. Gov. Bob Holden should commute this sentence because of the overwhelming mitigating evidence in the case. Please write the state of Missouri and request clemency for Kenneth Kenley.

ProDeathPenalty.Com

The Missouri Supreme Court has set a February 5th execution date for Kenneth Kenley, convicted of the January 1984 murder of Ronald Felts in Poplar Bluff during a two-day crime spree.

On the night of January 3, 1984, Kenley robbed a Poplar Bluff store after threatening the sales clerk with a pistol. He abducted a female customer and tried to sexually assault her in his vehicle but she escaped. Kenley entered the former Blue Moon tavern, a Poplar Bluff bar later that night and announced a holdup. Without warning, he shot patron Ronald Felts in the head, killing him instantly. Felts had been playing pool with friends.

The execution is scheduled for 12:01 a.m. Wednesday. Kenley, 42, has asked Gov. Bob Holden and the U.S. Supreme Court to reduce his sentence to life in prison. On Friday, the Missouri Supreme Court denied Kenley's request for a new hearing. His lawyers filed another round of appeals Monday with the U.S. District Court in St. Louis.

Jackie and Marty Felts were asleep when their 27-year-old son was murdered during the robbery of a crowded tavern near Poplar Bluff, Mo., 19 years ago. Their surviving son banged on their door at 3 a.m. to break the news. "It was the hardest, most heart-wrenching thing I've ever had to do," said Sam Felts, now 44. "The whole thing tore up my parents. Dad died three years later, and we think the heartache contributed. Mom kept a scrapbook on the case all these years. She just wanted to know that the killer would be put to death." Jackie Felts, 68, had made plans to drive up from Poplar Bluff to witness the execution. But she died last week of a heart attack in her home. Since her death, Sam Felts has decided against going. That leaves Ronnie Felts' widow, who remarried, and their two grown children, who plan to stand outside a glass window of the death chamber and watch Kenley die. Said Sam Felts: "We just hope the governor doesn't pull a Ryan on us. For 19 years, it's all been about Kenneth Kenley. It will be a relief when it's finally over." Mark Kennedy, the former Butler County prosecutor who handled the case, said: "Mr. Kenley blames his dad, but he himself was a mean guy. He got the pistol and practiced with it, and he mapped out his plans pretty well. He tried to kill four people that night. "We had 20 witnesses to the murder. When you look at what Mr. Kenley did, and know that our society says the punishment should be death, then that's the way it is. The only thing I'd like to know is whether he has made peace with himself and his God."

Kenley completed a four-year prison sentence for theft two months before his brief but violent crime rampage on Jan. 3-4, 1984. Ronnie Felts finished his evening shift as a hospital X-ray technician and went to the former Blue Moon tavern, five miles south of town. He was playing pool with three friends when Kenley, then 23, burst through the front door shortly after midnight and ordered everyone onto the floor. As most of the patrons stared at him in shock, Kenley shouted, "I'll make an example of you," and fired his .38-caliber pistol at Felts, striking him in the head. Kenley then shot and wounded the bartender, and kidnapped the female owner of the Blue Moon. She escaped in the parking lot.

An hour earlier, Kenley had robbed a convenience store in Poplar Bluff and kidnapped a customer. When he tried to force her to have sex, she jumped from the car. Kenley shot her in the back, but she survived. Shortly after killing Felts, Kenley tried to rob a motel, but his pistol didn't fire when he aimed at the owner's husband. Kenley was arrested later that morning in Corning, Ark., 30 miles south of Poplar Bluff, after firing into a grocery store ceiling and demanding a getaway car.

Kenley was tried in Poplar Bluff and sentenced to death in June 1984. Seven years later, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis ordered a new sentencing hearing for Kenley, ruling that his defense lawyer hadn't put up an adequate case after trial. In death penalty cases, juries determine guilt before hearing a second round of arguments on whether the sentence should be death, or life in prison. After a five-day resentencing hearing in Rolla, Mo., in 1994, Kenley was condemned again. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case in October, clearing the way for his execution.

UPDATE: Kenneth Kenley, who murdered a pool player to show he meant business while robbing a crowded tavern 19 years ago, was executed by injection early today in the Potosi Correctional Center. Kenley met Tuesday with relatives. Two cousins, an uncle and an in-law were prepared to witness on his behalf. Phyllis Manns, who is Ronnie Felts' widow, and their children, Mark Van Meter and Melissa Felts, all of Poplar Bluff, were scheduled to witness from a nearby area for the victim's family. Regina Sanders, a step-aunt to Kenley, spoke to him by telephone Tuesday. "He said, 'If they're going to do it, they're going to do it,'" said Sanders, of Greenville, Texas. "I asked him why he did (the murder). He said, "I had a death wish.'"

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"Missouri Executes Man for 1984 Slaying at Bar," by Tim O'Neil. (February 4, 2003)

POTOSI, Mo. — Kenneth Kenley, who murdered a pool player to show he meant business while robbing a crowded tavern 19 years ago, was executed by injection early today in the Potosi Correctional Center. Kenley, 42, was condemned for shooting Ronnie Felts on Jan. 4, 1984, in the old Blue Moon tavern just south of Poplar Bluff, Mo. Felts, a 27-year-old father of two children, was playing pool with friends when Kenley burst in and announced a holdup.

Kenley was pronounced dead at 12:03 a.m. today. Kenley appeared to speak to his relatives and friends through the window separating him from the witnesses. After he lost consciousness, a woman in that group began weeping loudly. Kenley's execution is the 60th Missouri has carried out under current U.S. Supreme Court rules. It was the first in Missouri since former Illinois Gov. George Ryan emptied his state's death row last month by pardoning four inmates and reducing the sentences of the 167 others. Missouri has 63 other men awaiting execution at the Potosi prison.

Lawyers for Kenley asked Gov. Bob Holden to commute his sentence to life without parole. They also filed last-ditch appeals with federal courts, arguing that Kenley was mentally unfit to be executed. But Holden declined to intervene about 11 p.m., shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court turned down the appeal. Kenley met Tuesday with relatives. Two cousins, an uncle and an in-law were prepared to witness on his behalf.

Phyllis Manns, who is Ronnie Felts' widow, and their children, Mark Van Meter and Melissa Felts, all of Poplar Bluff, were to witness from a nearby area for the victim's family. Regina Sanders, a step-aunt to Kenley, spoke to him by telephone Tuesday. "He said, 'If they're going to do it, they're going to do it,'" said Sanders, of Greenville, Texas. "I asked him why he did (the murder). He said, "I had a death wish.'"

Kenley never claimed innocence. Numerous witnesses testified that he rushed into the tavern shortly after midnight and ordered everyone onto the floor. Aiming his .38-caliber revolver at Felts, Kenley shouted, "I'll make an example of you," and shot him in the head. He also wounded the bartender and tried to kidnap the female owner.

An hour earlier, Kenley had robbed a convenience store and abducted a customer, and he shot and wounded her as she fled. He tried to rob a motel after he left the Blue Moon and was arrested later that morning in Corning, Ark., when he tried to switch getaway cars.

Kenley received the death penalty in a trial in Poplar Bluff. A federal judge ordered a new hearing on sentencing, and Kenley was condemned again after a rehearing in Rolla, Mo., in 1994.

Missouri Attorney General

State Supreme Court Sets Feb. 5 Execution For Man Who Committed Murder in Poplar Bluff During 1984 Crime Spree (January 7, 2003)

Jefferson City, Mo. — The Missouri Supreme Court today set a Feb. 5 execution date for Kenneth Kenley, convicted of the January 1984 murder of Ronald Felts in Poplar Bluff during a two-day crime spree. The office of Attorney General Jay Nixon represented the state against Kenley’s appeals.

On the night of Jan. 3, 1984, Kenley robbed a Poplar Bluff store after threatening the sales clerk with a pistol. He abducted a female customer and tried to sexually assault her in his vehicle, but she escaped. Kenley entered a Poplar Bluff bar later that night and announced a holdup. Without warning, he shot patron Ronald Felts in the head, killing him instantly.

Kenley took money from the cash register, shot the bartender in the jaw and tried to abduct the bar owner. Kenley also robbed a motel in Poplar Bluff at gunpoint that night and was apprehended in Conway, Ark., the next morning after carjacking a vehicle in a grocery store parking lot.

He was tried in Butler County and sentenced to death for capital murder.

Public Interest Litigation Clinic

KENLEY, KENNETH

DOB: September 17, 1960
Race: White
Gender: Male

County of conviction: Butler
Number of counts: One (not including two others injured during same series of crime on same day)
Race of victim: White
Gender of victim: Male
Date of crime: January 3, 1984
Date of sentencing: July 13, 1984

Trial Counsel: Perry Rhew (at first sentencing); Karen Kraft and Robert Wolfrum (at re-sentencing)
Current counsel: Frederick A. Duchardt, Jr., Jennifer Brewer

St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Reuters News)

"Victim's Brother Wants Killer Executed," by Tim O'Neil. (January 29, 2003)

Jackie and Marty Felts were asleep when their 27-year-old son was murdered during the robbery of a crowded tavern near Poplar Bluff, Mo., 19 years ago. Their surviving son banged on their door at 3 a.m. to break the news. "It was the hardest, most heart-wrenching thing I've ever had to do," said Sam Felts, now 44. "The whole thing tore up my parents. Dad died three years later, and we think the heartache contributed. Mom kept a scrapbook on the case all these years. She just wanted to know that the killer would be put to death."

Kenneth Kenley, 42, is to die by injection at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday in the Potosi Correctional Center for shooting Ronnie Felts on Jan. 4, 1984. His lawyers are filing more last-minute appeals and asking Gov. Bob Holden to reduce the sentence, but they're not disputing that Kenley did it.

Jackie Felts, 68, had made plans to drive up from Poplar Bluff to witness the execution. But she died last week of a heart attack in her home. Since her death, Sam Felts has decided against going. That leaves Ronnie Felts' widow, who remarried, and their two grown children, who plan to stand outside a glass window of the death chamber and watch Kenley die. Assuming Kenley is executed, he will be the 60th man put to death in Missouri since 1989 under current federal court rules on capital punishment. His would be the first execution in Missouri since former Illinois Gov. George Ryan's dramatic decisions three weeks ago to pardon four condemned men and commute the death sentences of all 167 other Illinois death row inmates in the final days of his administration. Ryan, once a supporter of capital punishment, said the death penalty system in his state had become "nothing short of catastrophic failure."

Kenley's execution would take place only hours after the Missouri Supreme Court is to hold an unusual hearing on a fellow condemned man's claim that he is innocent of a prison murder in 1985. Lawyers for Joseph Amrine, 46, say he should get a new trial because all three prisoners who testified against him at trial have recanted, claiming they were pressured to lie. And with the changed testimony, his lawyers say, he would become a free man.

The Missouri court and U.S. Supreme Court have ruled against Amrine before, so the new hearing has given hope to opponents of capital punishment. Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon is arguing that the punishment should stick. Said Sean D. O'Brien, Amrine's lawyer, "I think the court's unprecedented action indicates serious concerns that Joe Amrine is innocent."

No one is talking like that about Kenley. Holden is reviewing the clemency request. He has not blocked any of the 13 executions that were scheduled by the Missouri Supreme Court since he became governor in 2001. Said Sam Felts: "We just hope the governor doesn't pull a Ryan on us. For 19 years, it's all been about Kenneth Kenley. It will be a relief when it's finally over."

Kenley declined to be interviewed. Jennifer Brewer, one of his lawyers, said Holden should reduce Kenley's sentence to life in prison because he was not mentally fit now or when he committed the crimes. Brewer said Kenley was treated as a youth for mental and behavioral problems. "His mother was 16 when he was born, and she abandoned the family when Ken was 5," Brewer said. "His father was abusive. (Kenley) dropped out of school at 14 and never fit in. He never had a chance to deal with his mental illness until he went to prison. When he's on his medication, he's fine."

Mark Kennedy, the former Butler County prosecutor who handled the case, said: "Mr. Kenley blames his dad, but he himself was a mean guy. He got the pistol and practiced with it, and he mapped out his plans pretty well. He tried to kill four people that night. "We had 20 witnesses to the murder. When you look at what Mr. Kenley did, and know that our society says the punishment should be death, then that's the way it is. The only thing I'd like to know is whether he has made peace with himself and his God."

Kenley completed a four-year prison sentence for stealing two months before his brief but violent crime rampage on Jan. 3-4, 1984.

Ronnie Felts finished his evening shift as a hospital X-ray technician and went to the former Blue Moon tavern, five miles south of town. He was playing pool with three friends when Kenley, then 23, burst through the front door shortly after midnight and ordered everyone onto the floor. As most of the patrons stared at him in shock, Kenley shouted, "I'll make an example of you," and fired his .38-caliber pistol at Felts, striking him in the head. Kenley then shot and wounded the bartender, and kidnapped the female owner of the Blue Moon. She escaped in the parking lot.

An hour earlier, Kenley had robbed a convenience store in Poplar Bluff and kidnapped a customer. When he tried to force her to have sex, she jumped from the car. Kenley shot her in the back, but she survived. Shortly after killing Felts, Kenley tried to rob a motel, but his pistol didn't fire when he aimed at the owner's husband. Kenley was arrested later that morning in Corning, Ark., 30 miles south of Poplar Bluff, after firing into a grocery store ceiling and demanding a getaway car.

Kenley was tried in Poplar Bluff and sentenced to death in June 1984. Seven years later, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis ordered a new sentencing hearing for Kenley, ruling that his defense lawyer hadn't put up an adequate case after trial. In death penalty cases, juries determine guilt before hearing a second round of arguments on whether the sentence should be death, or life in prison. After a five-day resentencing hearing in Rolla, Mo., in 1994, Kenley was condemned again. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case in October, clearing the way for his execution.

Jefferson City News-Tribune

"Missouri Executes Poplar Bluff Killer Kenley," by Jim Suhr. (AP Frebruary 5, 2003)

POTOSI, Mo. (AP) -- A man convicted of killing a tavern patron during a one-night 1984 rampage that wounded two other people in southeast Missouri was executed Wednesday. Kenneth Kenley, 42, died at 12:03 Wednesday, two minutes after the first of three injections were administered at the Potosi Correctional Center, said Department of Corrections spokesman Tim Kniest.

While strapped to the gurney, Kinley looked at the five witnesses he chose to attend the execution. He mouthed words to them and nodding after one of the women said, "I love you." Kenley then slipped out of consciousness as the first drug was injected. His mouth dropped open, and the woman, who was not identified, began sobbing and shaking as Kenley died. In his final statement, which he offered ahead of time, Kenley wrote, "Tell Amy 'I love you.' And Ronnie and Darla, 'I love you.' When I see Amy again, tell her she is my love." The three people in that statement were among his witnesses. Their connection to Kenley was unclear. Kenley became the first Missouri inmate executed this year and the 60th since the state's 1989 reinstatement of the death penalty.

Kenley's fate was sealed late Tuesday when Gov. Bob Holden did not grant clemency, removing the last barrier before Kenley's execution in the January 1984 slaying of Ronald Felts near Poplar Bluff. Kenley's last-minute legal appeals Tuesday went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, but failed. The Supreme Court had refused to hear Kenley's case twice previously. Kenley's backers pressed that their client be spared on grounds that prison officials were "cruel and unusual" in failing to treat a liver-attacking disease he contracted behind bars. They also claimed he was too mentally unfit to be executed. Kenley's clemency bid to Holden also argued the competency-for-execution issue, among a host of other challenges. Kenley declined interview requests over the two days preceding his death.

Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon called Kenley "a heartless, cold-blooded killer." He said Kenley's blaming an abusive household, among other things, for his violence was laughable. "There are thousands of Missourians living normal lives who have had troubled upbringings, and nothing is an adequate excuse for the violent murders and assaults that litter this guy's biography," Nixon said. "He doesn't have any good arguments because he's guilty as sin."

Kenley shot Felts, 27, in the head during a holdup of a rural Poplar Bluff tavern where the victim was playing pool with friends. Earlier that night, Kenley robbed a liquor store in the southeast Missouri town, then fled with a hostage he shot in the back as she jumped from their moving car. When he later stormed the former Blue Moon Tavern and ordered Felts and others there to hit the floor, Kenley shouted, "I mean business. I'll kill you just like I'm going to kill him." He then shot Felts dead with his .38-caliber pistol. Kenley shot the bartender in the jaw and put his pistol to a teenager's forehead. When he tried to shoot an abducted woman as she fled, his pistol wouldn't fire. During a motel holdup later that night, Kenley aimed at the owner but fled when he resisted -- and after his gun again failed. Kenley exchanged gunfire with police in Arkansas and eventually surrendered, telling officers who arrested him, "You all were lucky."

Behind bars, Kenley was less than a model prisoner, logging 61 conduct violations that included eight assaults, a Department of Corrections spokesman said.

KFVS-TV News

Family of Murder Victim Tastes Bittersweet Outcome

19 years after a Poplar Bluff man is gunned down, his family learns the convicted killer has a date with Missouri's death chamber. "It's something in the back of your mind that you hope for," says Sam Felts. Kenneth Kenley was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1984 murder of 27 year old Ronald Felts, Sam's brother. "It's been 19 years, and not a day goes by that you don't think about your brother," Felts tells Heartland News.

But, the family's relief is tinged with a constant frustration. Not only has Kenley spent nearly two decades on death row, but the Felts family feels they are always the last ones to learn about events in Ronnie Felts' case. "It should have been done a long time ago, there was no doubt that he did it," says Ronnie's mother, Jackie Felts. She blames the legal system for all the delays in the case and for keeping them in the dark.

At the age of 23, court records show Kenneth Kenley walked into what was then the Blue Moon tavern. He told the bar patrons he was robbing the business, and when they didn't immediately respond, Kenley shot Ronnie Felts in the temple, killing him instantly. When Kenley was arrested the next day in Arkansas, he had shot a total of three people, and robbed four businesses.

As the convicted killer sat on Missouri's death row, Ronnie Felts' wife was forced to move on, his children grew up, and his family became even closer. "We were just a close knit family and for this to happen to us....it just tore us apart, but it pulled us together, too," Jackie Felts recalls.

"It's something that I've always wished for," Sam Felts says of the execution date, "but it's not going to be final closure. It will be final closure for Kenneth Kensley, but not for Ronnie Felts becuase he's going to live on."

State v. Kenley, 952 S.W.2d 250 (Mo. 1997), cert.denied, 522 U.S. 1095 (1998).

I. A. (Factual Background)

Kenley killed Ronald Felts during a crime spree that occurred in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, during the late hours of January 3 and the early hours of January 4, 1984. The crime spree was the culmination of a series of robberies planned by Kenley and his cousin to gain money to purchase drugs and to help his grandmother. In preparation for the crime spree, Kenley broke into a sporting goods store and stole some guns. On January 2, Kenley purchased a box of .38 caliber hollow point bullets and practiced shooting at cans and trees.

At about 11:15 p.m. on January 3, Kenley entered the Kater Inn package store wearing a ski mask and holding a .38 caliber pistol. After the store clerk emptied the cash register into a bag, Kenley grabbed a bystander, Sandra Buttry, and forced her into a brown station wagon that he had borrowed from a friend. Kenley commanded Ms. Buttry to unzip his pants and perform oral sex on him, but Ms. Buttry was unable to unzip the pants. While Kenley unzipped his pants, Ms. Buttry located the door handle and jumped from the moving vehicle. Kenley shot her in the back as she exited the vehicle. Kenley returned to where he had shot Ms. Buttry, but drove on when he saw she was receiving aid from a passing motorist. Ms. Buttry survived. Shortly after midnight, Kenley entered the Blue Moon Tavern and announced a hold-up. He ordered everyone to empty their pockets and lie down. When nobody immediately reacted, Kenley pulled his gun from his pocket and pointed it at Ronald Felts, who was standing approximately twenty feet away. He shouted, "This is a hold up--hit the floor--I mean business. I'll kill you just like I'm going to kill him." Kenley fired a single shot that struck Mr. Felts in the head and killed him.

Kenley then told the owner of the bar, Ellen White, to open the cash register. Kenley grabbed the money, kicked Ms. White and Randy Jenkins, and instructed them to get up and leave with him. When the pair reacted slowly, Kenley fired a warning shot over their heads. Kenley told Ms. White that she would have to perform oral sex on him or be killed. Kenley then changed his mind about taking Jenkins and shot him in the face. Jenkins survived.

Kenley left the tavern with Ms. White. In his haste to leave, Kenley backed the station wagon onto a curb and got it stuck. Kenley decided to take Ms. White's car instead, but the keys to the car were in the bar. When *257 Kenley and Ms. White entered the kitchen where her keys were, Kenley found fifteen-year-old Lori Spralding hiding there. Kenley put his gun to her forehead and asked if she had called the police. Although the girl responded that she had not, Kenley threatened to kill her anyway. Hoping to distract Kenley, Ms. White grabbed the keys and left the kitchen. Kenley followed her and left Spralding there. While she was driving, Ms. White was able to trick Kenley into believing that she needed to open her door to see because the windows were fogged over. Ms. White leapt from the moving car and ran to safety. She heard Kenley's gun click but it did not fire.

At around 12:30 a.m., Kenley arrived at the Coachlight Motel. The motel was owned by Ollie Gaultney and her husband, Truman. Kenley pulled his gun on Mrs. Gaultney and demanded money. When Mr. Gaultney entered the office, Kenley pointed the gun at him and said, "I'll kill you. I've killed already tonight and I'll kill you." Mrs. Gaultney heard the gun click, but again it did not fire. A struggle ensued between Mr. Gaultney and Kenley with Kenley being forced outside the office. When Mr. Gaultney retrieved a shotgun, Kenley left. Mr. Gaultney fired three shots at the radiator of Ms. White's car while Kenley sat in the car reloading his gun. Kenley then drove away.

By that time, police were searching for Kenley. Police officers from Clay County, Arkansas, positioned themselves at the state line and the Corning Police Department set up a road block a few miles farther south. When Kenley crossed the state line, two officers pursued him to the roadblock. Kenley maneuvered around the roadblock but lost control of his car on an ice patch. The police officers disabled the car with gunshots to the radiator and front tire. Kenley fled after firing three shots at the police officers. After the officers returned fire, Kenley fired two more shots and escaped across a field.

Shortly after 1:30 a.m., Kenley arrived at Junior's Food Mart, in Corning, Arkansas. Kenley fired a warning shot into the ceiling and demanded a car and a driver. When no one volunteered, Kenley proclaimed, "I've done killed once tonight. Wouldn't bother me to do it again." Somebody in the store pointed out his car and told Kenley that the keys were in it. As Kenley drove out of the parking lot, police officers manning the nearby roadblock drew their guns, approached the car, and ordered Kenley to stop. Kenley surrendered because "the odds were not in his favor." In response to being read his Miranda warnings, Kenley told the officers, "You all were lucky." While being transported to the Corning jail, Kenley asked if the person he shot in Missouri had died.

B. (Procedural Background)

Following a jury trial, Kenley was convicted of capital murder and received the death penalty. In a separate trial, Kenley was convicted of three counts of robbery in the first degree, two counts of kidnapping, two counts of assault in the first degree, and one count of stealing. The capital murder conviction and sentence were affirmed on direct appeal by this Court. State v. Kenley, 693 S.W.2d 79 (Mo. banc 1985) , cert. denied, 475 U.S. 1098, 106 S.Ct. 1500, 89 L.Ed.2d 900 (1986). The convictions for the other crimes were affirmed on direct appeal by the Court of Appeals, Southern District. State v. Kenley, 701 S.W.2d 185 (Mo.App.1985). Kenley sought post-conviction relief from each of the convictions by filing two separate Rule 27.26 motions. The motions were consolidated for hearing and denied. Kenley v. State, 759 S.W.2d 340 (Mo.App.1988) This Court denied Kenley's application for transfer from the denial of post-conviction relief. Kenley then filed for a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. The federal district court denied Kenley's petition. He then appealed that decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Kenley v. Armontrout, 937 F.2d 1298 (8th Cir.) , cert. denied, sub. nom., Delo v. Kenley, 502 U.S. 964, 112 S.Ct. 431, 116 L.Ed.2d 450 (1991).

The Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of relief in regard to the guilt phase of Kenley's trial. The Eighth Circuit held that due to overwhelming evidence of guilt, Kenley was not prejudiced by his counsel's ineffective assistance. The Eighth Circuit, however, reversed the denial of relief in regard to the sentencing phase. The Eighth Circuit found that trial counsel was prejudicially ineffective for failing to conduct a reasonable investigation into mitigating circumstances. The Eighth Circuit noted many factors that indicated that Kenley's appointed counsel for the first sentencing was not effective. First, counsel only had been out of law school for three months at the time he was appointed and had only tried one misdemeanor robbery trial by the time trial began. Id. at 1299-1300. Counsel only logged fifty hours of pre-trial preparation before Kenley's trial. Id. at 1300. Counsel sought and received little outside assistance in preparing the case. Id. Prior to the capital trial, counsel waived an automatic change of venue despite wide publicity of Kenley's crimes. Id. During voir dire, counsel performed very little inquiry into the attitudes of the jurors toward capital punishment. Id. At the capital sentencing, counsel submitted no mitigating evidence, unwittingly made reference to Kenley's failure to testify, and did not object to evidence regarding the deterrent effect of the death penalty. Id.

The Eighth Circuit also identified numerous factors indicating that counsel was utterly unprepared to defend Kenley at sentencing. Counsel failed to interview two doctors, Dr. Manion and Dr. Richards, who had treated or diagnosed Kenley in the past. Id. at 1308. Counsel did not review the doctors' reports or Kenley's military file, which contained some evidence of a potential "extreme personality or emotional disorder or disturbance." Id. Counsel failed to interview family witnesses concerning Kenley's history and his condition on the morning of the crime. Id.

Based on its assessment that counsel was utterly unprepared to defend Kenley, the Eighth Circuit reversed the denial of habeas relief in regard to the sentencing phase and remanded the case to the district court "with instructions that the State of Missouri be required to vacate Kenley's death sentence and either reduce it to a life sentence without parole or conduct a new sentencing procedure." Id. at 1309-10.

The State elected to hold a new sentencing hearing. In addition to offering all the evidence it offered in the original sentencing trial, the State offered evidence of Kenley's prior conviction for stealing, his conviction for the other crimes committed during the crime spree, and eighty-nine prison conduct violations, including forty-seven violations that occurred after the 1984 crime spree.

The State also introduced evidence of Kenley's conviction for stabbing an inmate while he was incarcerated at the Jefferson City Correctional Center. Over defense counsels' objection, prison guard Rollie Brizendine testified that in March 1985 Kenley pulled out a homemade ice-pick and began chasing an inmate in a fenced recreation yard. Kenley caught the inmate, whose hands were cuffed behind his back, and stabbed him in the chest. The State introduced into evidence two homemade ice-picks confiscated from Kenley after the incident and a certified copy of the conviction for first degree assault.

Finally, the State introduced evidence of Kenley's conviction for possession of a prohibited article in a correctional institution related to a hostage incident in the Potosi Correctional Center. The State offered evidence that on April 19, 1992, Kenley took the librarian of the prison, Ms. Judy Robart hostage for two hours. During the incident, Kenley used the cutting blade of a paper cutter to keep Ms. Robart hostage and the prison staff at bay. At one point, Kenley swung the blade and hit a prison official who had been sent in to intervene. Superintendent Paul Delo testified that, if Kenley had not released Ms. Robart by four o'clock, a last resort plan to end the crisis would have been put into action. The plan called for Delo to distract Kenley and tackle Ms. Robart. A prison guard would then shoot Kenley. The plan was never put into action because Kenley surrendered at around three o'clock. The State admitted into evidence a certified copy of the conviction for possession of a prohibited article in a correctional institution.

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At the conclusion of the evidence, the jury recommended that Kenley be given the death penalty. The court sentenced Kenley in accordance with the jury's recommendation.

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Consideration of Kenley shows a man who commenced a night of life-threatening criminal activity, which included four robberies, three attempted kidnappings, two attempted sexual assaults, and assorted additional felonies. Defendant prepared himself for this crime spree by practicing his marksmanship and acquiring a particularly life-threatening type of ammunition. It is apparent that he embarked upon his activities with the full intent to kill. By happenstance, only one person was killed, but Kenley wounded two others by shooting them in places that could have caused death and attempted to shoot two other people. Kenley showed no remorse for killing Felts, bragging on three occasions that night that he would kill others just like he killed Felts, and telling the arresting officers that they were lucky that they caught him. The sentence is not disproportionate. The nature of the crime and the strength of the evidence support the sentence of death.

The judgments of the trial court and the motion court are affirmed.