By AP/KWMU
Bonne Terre, MO – The Missouri Department of Corrections may move its execution chamber away from the maximum security prison that houses death row inmates.
Under the plan, an inmate scheduled to be put to death would be moved about 25 miles to the prison in Bonne Terre days before the execution.
Corrections Department spokesman John Fougere says no final decision has been made.
The first execution after the state reinstated the death penalty in 1989 was in Jefferson City; the 60 since then have been at the Potosi Correctional Center, including two last year.
Fougere says the Bonne Terre prison was built to handle executions, while the Potosi was not, and is not ideally suited for them.
Also, he says performing executions at the prison where the condemned inmate lives is difficult emotionally for other prisoners and staff.