Final Meal:
Steak, jumbo shrimp and cheesecake.

Final Words:
"I hope for salvation. I hope that the mercy and forgiveness that I have asked for will suffice. Praise Allah."

Internet Sources:

Capital Punishment in Missouri from Missouri.Net

Hamilton demanded the money from the drug sale. Iverson told him that he gave the money to another individual that was with him in Junction City. Owsley then threatened Iverson and began punching, kicking and striking Iverson with the shotgun to persuade him to tell where the money was. When Iverson continued to deny that he had the money, Owsley took a bag from Hamilton and put it on Iverson’s head and began to smother him. At that point Hamilton asked Cole about the money and she lied by offering to take them to a key. Hamilton then tied Cole and Iverson together by their feet with an electrical extension cord and the two where then covered with a blanket.

Owsley stood over them, hitting them with the barrel of the shotgun and said, "One of you will live: one of you will die." He put the gun to Iverson’s head. Before he fired the weapon Hamilton told Owsley to put a pillow over Iverson’s head which Owsley did. He then fired the shotgun into Iverson’s head killing him instantly. Hamilton untied Cole and took her to his car while Owsley followed in a second car. A short time later Cole managed to escape from Hamilton’s car and notify the police of the incident. Owsley was arrested on 4-19-93.

Legal Chronology:

1993
04/18 - Michael Owsley and Marion Hamilton kill Elvin Iverson in Kansas City, Missouri.
04/30 - Owsley is charged by indictment with first degree murder, first degree assault, kidnapping and armed criminal action.

1994
10/18 - The trial begins in Jackson County Circuit Court.
10/26 - The jury finds Owsley guilty of murder first degree, kidnapping and two counts of armed criminal action.
10/28 -The jury recommended capital punishment as the sentence for murder first degree.

1995
01/06 - Owsley is sentenced to death on the charge of murder first degree and Life for kidnapping and two terms of 15 years.
01/15 - Owsley files a notice of appeal.
07/09 - Owsley files a motion for post-conviction relief.

1996
07/09 - The Circuit Court denies the motion for post-conviction relief.

1997
12/23 - The Missouri State Supreme Court affirms Owsley’s conviction and sentence and the denial of post-conviction relief

1998
10/05 - The U.S. Supreme Court denies certiorari review.
12/08 - Owsley files a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.

1999
05/06 - The U.S. District Court denies the petition for writ of habeas corpus.

2000
12/11 - The U.S. Eighth Court of Appeals affirms the denial of relief.

2001
10/01 - The U.S. Supreme Court declines discretionary review.
10/02 - The state requests the Missouri State Supreme Court to set an execution date.

2002
07/07 - The Missouri State Supreme Court sets February 6, 2002 as Owsley’s execution date.

National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

Michael Owsley - Scheduled Execution Date and Time: 2/6/02 1:01 AM EST.

Michael Owsley is scheduled to be executed by the state of Missouri on Feb. 6, Missouri’s second date for 2002. On the evening of April 18, 1993 Owsley was in the haze of drug abuse and looking to find more when he viciously murdered Elvin Iverson. At trial, Dr. Roswell Evans testified to the effects of PCP on Oswley, stating, “provoked in any way, they can become incredibly violent.” Moreover, Evans said that under the influence of drugs and alcohol “Owsley had the capacity to become violent and to do unplanned kinds of crimes.”

In his dissent for the 8th Circuit Court’s ruling on Owsley’s case, Judge Heaney noted, “…Owsley was unconstitutionally denied the right to introduce evidence of his intoxication that would have tended to show that he did not have the ability to deliberate, which is required in order to be convicted of first degree murder.” The rest of the court did not agree with Judge Heaney’s analysis of Missouri law, but it is common sense to believe that drug and alcohol abuse contributes to the culpability of an offender. While still guilty of murder, Owsley was not the deliberate and calculated killer that first-degree murder requires. From the evidence this clearly should not have been a death penalty case.

With at least one Missouri Supreme Court justice on his side, Michael Owsley has a valid claim to challenge his conviction. Please write to the state of Missouri and request that they allow all evidence to be heard.

ProDeathPenalty.Com

On April 18, 1993, Elvin Iverson, the murder victim, drove from Kansas City, Missouri to Junction City, Kansas to sell drugs. Iverson was accompanied by Ellen Cole. When the two returned to the house in Kansas City where Iverson was staying, Owsley and a friend named Hamilton confronted them and ordered them to lie on the ground. Both Iverson and Cole complied on observing that Hamilton was carrying a Tech-9 semi-automatic weapon with a silencer and Owsley was carrying a 12-guage sawed-off shotgun. Hamilton then demanded to be told "where the drug money was."

Iverson pleaded that he did not have the money and that he had given it to another person who had accompanied him to Junction City. After Hamilton pressed unsuccessfully for more information, Owsley spoke directly to Iverson, calling him "a thorough nigger" and saying that "you’re begging for your life now nigger." Owsley backed up his comments by punching and kicking Iverson and, at times, beating his face with the sawed-off shotgun. When Iverson continued to deny that he had any money, Owsley then took a bag from Hamilton and began smothering Iverson. At that point, Hamilton asked Cole about the money, and in response she lied by offering to take them to a key. Hamilton then tied Cole and Iverson together by their feet with an electrical extension cord and covered them with a blanket. Owsley stood over them, hitting them with the barrel of the shotgun and said, "One of you live; one of you die." He put the gun to Iverson’s head, but before he could fire, Hamilton instructed him to place a pillow over Iverson’s head. After putting the pillow in place, Owsley pulled the trigger, killing him instantly.

In making their getaway, the two gunmen untied Cole and took her along. Owsley forced her into Hamilton’s car, and as Hamilton drove away, Owsley followed in another car. A short time later, Cole managed to escape from Hamilton’s car and notify the police.

The Digital Missourian (Associated Press)

"Convicted Killer Decries Death Penalty Before Execution," by Jim Suhr.

February 6, 2002 - POTOSI, Mo. (AP) - Asking only for spiritual salvation, Michael Owsley went to his death in a Missouri execution chamber early Wednesday with no apologies and little regard for a judicial system he accused of being stacked against blacks like him. "I hope for salvation. I hope that the mercy and forgiveness that I have asked for will suffice. Praise Allah," read the final words of the man executed in the 1993 shotgun killing of a Kansas City teen-ager. Hours after declaring himself repentant but blaming his trial attorney and co-defendant for his fate, Owsley died at 12:07 a.m. at the Potosi Correctional Center. The execution took six minutes.

No one representing Owsley's 18-year-old victim in the killing over drug-dealing proceeds watched Owsley die. Owsley's relatives also weren't there, at the 40-year-old condemned man's request. In the end, Owsley got a wink from a volunteer who teaches religion classes at the prison, then muttered something inaudible while straining to keep his eyes open before the first intravenous drug rendered him unconscious.

Owsley's fate was sealed late Tuesday when the U.S. Supreme Court and Gov. Bob Holden refused to halt the execution, Missouri's 55th since the state resumed capital punishment in 1989 and the ninth since Holden took office a year ago. In interviews this week, Owsley insisted the shotgun blast that killed Elvin Iverson came accidentally while Owsley was "catatonic" on gin and PCP. He said that meant the slaying was unintentional and worthy of a lesser charge not punishable by death. Owsley's clemency petition cast his court-appointed trial attorney as a bumbler -- and co-defendant Marion Hamilton as the killing's instigator who unfairly got a 20-year sentence on a second-degree murder conviction. "This case needs to be reviewed because Missouri's death-row situation is a situation that has been used repeatedly on people like me -- poor, black and unable to defend ourselves," Owsley told The Associated Press hours before his execution. "I'm nothing to Missouri, I'm nothing to the United States -- instead of a poor Negro they could do anything to. As they see it, I'm still chattel property."

In the clemency petition Owsley also faulted his troubled upbringing dating to even before he was born, claiming that his then-alcoholic mother's repeated "home remedies" meant to abort him during pregnancy included hours over a bucket filled with turpentine and hot water. But on Tuesday, Owsley visited with his mother and stepfather, telling a reporter "my mother has nothing to be embarrassed about" and that trying to kill him as a fetus was her choice. "It's by God's good grace that I'm here," Owsley said.

Iverson and companion Ellen Cole drove from Kansas City to Junction City, Kan., to sell drugs in April 1993, then returned to Iverson's Kansas City home where they were confronted by Owsley and Hamilton. When Iverson tearfully insisted he had given the drug money to someone else, Owsley punched and kicked him, at times beating his face with the shotgun before trying to smother him with a bag. Hamilton tied Iverson and Cole together by the feet before the two were covered with a blanket. "One of you live, one of you die," Owsley reportedly said while hitting the two with the shotgun, moments before it fired into Iverson's head.

Hamilton and Owsley untied Cole and made their getaway with her. She managed to escape and call police. Hamilton, 43, will have his first parole hearing in April 2003, a Department of Corrections spokesman said.