A man who killed a Missouri State Highway Patrol officer in Troop G is set to be executed at 6 p.m. Oct. 14, barring a last-minute delay.
The Missouri Supreme Court set the execution date for Lance Shockley, 48, from Van Buren, who was convicted of the murder in 2005.
Shockley had sought to appeal to the federal courts, but the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review his case on March 31, 2025. That same day, the Missouri Supreme Court filed a motion to schedule Shockley’s execution date.
According to the patrol, Shockley was convicted for the murder of Sgt. Carl Dewayne Graham, who was found dead after being ambushed and shot near Van Buren on March 20, 2005.
Just before his death, Graham was investigating a fatal crash involving Shockley, where the driver fled the scene. Shockley was later charged with felony leaving the scene of an accident that resulted in a passenger’s death.
In 2009, a Carter County judge sentenced Shockley to the death penalty after a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder and armed criminal action.
Shockley tried to appeal his sentence, but the Missouri Supreme Court upheld the conviction on Aug. 13, 2013. He also sought post-conviction relief, but that motion was denied by a judge in 2017 and the Missouri Supreme Court in 2019.
Shockley is incarcerated in the Potosi Correctional Center.
