Judges, jurors and more than 70 current and former prison workers are calling for a halt to the scheduled execution next Tuesday of Missouri death row prisoner Brian Dorsey. One former prison officer who knew Dorsey wrote in The Kansas City Star, “From my perspective after decades in corrections, I do not hesitate to say that executing Brian Dorsey would be a pointless cruelty.” Dorsey was convicted of killing his cousin and her husband in 2006. His request for clemency is based on inadequate representation from court-appointed lawyers and the fact that he has turned his life around in prison while working as a barber. Missouri Governor Mike Parson could commute Dorsey’s sentence to life without parole.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma executed Michael Dewayne Smith Thursday in the first of 25 executions planned this year. This week Oklahoma Judge Gary Lumpkin told state execution schedulers to “suck it up” and “man up” after they requested more time between executions in order to reduce trauma on staff and the potential for errors.