This Feb. 9, 2014 photo provided by the Missouri Department of Corrections shows Missouri death row inmate Richard Strong. Strong was convicted of fatally stabbing his girlfriend and her 2-year-old daughter 15 years ago in suburban St. Louis. (Missouri Department of Corrections via AP)
ST. LOUIS 鈥擜 Missouri man was set to be executed Tuesday for killing his girlfriend and her young daughter during a violent argument.
Defense attorney Jennifer Herndon said Richard Strong 鈥渏ust snapped鈥� during a heated exchange between two people with mental health issues. He used a butcher鈥檚 knife to kill Eva Washington, then turned the weapon on Washington鈥檚 2-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, Zandrea Thomas.
Strong, 47, was scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Tuesday. He would be the fourth man executed in Missouri this year and the 16th since November 2013. Only Texas has performed more executions over that span.
Police in the St. Louis suburb of St. Ann received an emergency call on Oct. 23, 2000, and heard a scream. They went to Washington鈥檚 apartment. Strong met them outside and told them at first that Washington was sleeping, and then later that she had gone to work. Officers saw blood stains on his hand, and Strong tried to run. When they caught him, he admitted to the crime.
Inside, police found the bodies. They also found a pool of blood on a bed, the knife next to it, and the couple鈥檚 3-month-old daughter, Alyshia Strong, who was unhurt.
Herndon said both Strong and Washington suffered from mental illness and frequently argued.
鈥淗e just snapped,鈥� Herndon said. 鈥淚t was just sort of a powder keg waiting to explode. It wasn鈥檛 a healthy relationship.鈥�
Alyshia Strong was taken in by Strong鈥檚 mother and, despite the crime, grew close to her father, frequently visiting him in prison. A clemency petition to Gov. Jay Nixon relied heavily on Alyshia Strong鈥檚 words describing the importance of her father in her life.
鈥渓 know some people probably wonder how I can have a relationship with my father given that he killed my mother, but we are very close. 鈥� I am thankful I have him in my life,鈥� Alyshia, now 14, wrote in the clemency petition.
鈥淚鈥檝e never been angry with my dad, and I鈥檝e learned to forgive,鈥� she added in an interview.
A spokesman for Nixon said the governor was still weighing the clemency request. Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court was considering two petitions seeking to halt the execution, one procedural, and one citing the fact that Richard Strong suffers from severe depression.
Alyshia said in the clemency petition that she thinks 鈥渋t is wrong for me to have another loss. I understand that my father needs to face consequences and to pay for what he did, but I do not think it is right for me to lose my father as part of the punishment.鈥�