Missouri
Missouri's history of lynching lives on. Just look at the death penalty
Missouri’s use of the death penalty — a “consistent outlier” as use of capital punishment wanes across the country — has a direct tie to the state’s history of lynching, a new report says.
The report, “Compromised Justice,” says the state has applied the death penalty with discrimination, and that it is more than seven times more likely to be used when the homicide involves a white victim versus a Black victim.
Since 1972, 52 Black defendants who were charged with killing a white person have received death sentences, while just seven white defendants got the death penalty for killing a Black victim, according to the report.
Those numbers, as well as other studies, show that “whiteness is valued over non-whiteness,” said Tiana Herring, the report’s author and a data storyteller with the Death Penalty Information Center.
“That’s a stark example of how we can kind of see similar influences in how we’re defining what justice looks like and who deserves to be prosecuted just based on the race of the victim alone,” Herring said.
Missouri is among a few non-Southern states with the highest number of “racial terror lynchings,” at 60, according to the Equal Justice Initiative.
The first documented lynching in U.S. history was said to be in 1836, when a white mob in St. Louis burned a 26-year-old free Black man named Frances McIntosh alive, according to “Discovering African American St. Louis: a Guide to Historic Sites.”
Herring said she found a direct tie from past racial acts of terror to modern-day death penalty numbers.
“I often come across news articles or old books that talk about lynchings and death sentences in the same breath,” she said. “Those historical forces are really what makes it very clear to me that there is a connection between these two things.”
In 2023, Missouri executed four people, making it one of just five states to use the death penalty. The Missouri Supreme Court has scheduled another execution for April 2024.
Herring also describes the racial disparities in the state’s high homicide rate as “especially stark.” For the seventh year in a row, Missouri has had the highest Black homicide rate in the U.S., as Black residents are killed at more than twice the national rate, according to the Violence Policy Center.
“It seems that something’s not in balance and one of the purposes of the report is to at least draw attention to the fact that there may be some underlying subconscious issues at play here that predate all of us,” Herring said. “The legacies of violence and discrimination in the report may be ingrained in our systems more than we know.”
Missouri
BetMGM Missouri bonus code NYPDM1500: Get a 20% first deposit match up to $1,500 for Missouri vs. Alabama State
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Mizzou is a 22.5-point favorite over Alabama State. The Tigers step back onto its home floor looking to reset after road losses to Notre Dame and Kansas. Alabama State has struggled mightily against high-major opponents.
BetMGM Missouri bonus code NYPDM1500
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What our Post expert thinks about Missouri vs. Alabama State
Alabama State has already dropped its two power-conference tests by an average of 32.5 points, and its defensive profile hasn’t suggested much resistance.
The Hornets bring two of the SWAC’s top scorers in Asjon Anderson and Micah Simpson, they are giving up 81.4 points per game and allowing opponents to shoot 45.3 percent from the floor.
Missouri’s rebounding edge should matter — the Tigers pull nearly 40 boards per game while Alabama State is giving up 37.4 a night and just surrendered 18 offensive rebounds to UT Martin.
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Why Trust New York Post Betting
Sean Treppedi handicaps the NFL, NHL, MLB and college football for the New York Post. He primarily focuses on picks that reflect market value while tracking trends to mitigate risk.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) – Road construction on Springfield’s northside is affecting access to the Southwest Missouri Humane Society.
MoDOT is realigning the intersection of Norton and Melville Road as part of the I-44 overpass project. The bridge work and intersection project are both impacting the animal shelter.
The shelter sits on Norton Road just west of where the work is happening. Visitors can only reach the shelter by taking the long way up West Bypass to Westgate Avenue, then onto Norton Road.
MoDOT says the intersection at Norton and Melville is supposed to be closed for two weeks. The bridge project, as a whole, is supposed to be completed by the end of the year.
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Copyright 2025 KY3. All rights reserved.
KSHB 41 News anchor Caitlin Knute is interested in hearing from you. Send her an e-mail.
Organizers working to turn back Missouri’s congressional redistricting map spoke Tuesday about collecting signatures to put the effort to a vote by citizens.
People Not Politicians submitted more than 300,000 signatures Tuesday to the Missouri Secretary of State’s Office. The signatures hope to force a statewide vote on redistricting approved earlier this year by Missouri politicians.
KSHB 41 anchor Caitlin Knute spoke with one of the volunteers behind the effort.
Volunteer describes collecting signatures for petition on Missouri redistricting
“I think people in rural areas want to follow the Constitution, and I think it was pretty clear this was not done within the parameters of the Constitution,” volunteer Elizabeth Franklin said.
Redistricting typically occurs after a census every 10 years, but that wasn’t the case this year in Missouri. Critics on both sides of the aisle note that it splits Kansas City into three districts, lumping parts of the city in with much more rural areas.
A spokesperson for the Missouri Secretary of State’s office confirmed receipt of 691 boxes of signatures.
“The elections division will proceed with scanning, counting and sorting the sheets for verification by local election authorities,” the spokesperson said.
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