More than 15 years after a double murder that shocked Missouri, David Hosier was executed on June 11, 2024, while continuing to maintain that he was innocent of the crimes that sent him to death row.
Hosier was convicted of the 2009 murders of Angela Gilpin and Rodney Gilpin in Jefferson City, Missouri. Prosecutors argued that Hosier, who had previously been involved in a relationship with Angela Gilpin, carried out the killings in an act of revenge. A jury found him guilty, and he was sentenced to death.
Despite years of appeals, courts repeatedly upheld the conviction. In the days leading up to his execution, Hosier continued to insist that he had been wrongfully convicted, arguing that investigators had failed to fully pursue other possible suspects.
Witnesses reported that during his final hours, Hosier remained steadfast in his claims of innocence. He spent time with spiritual advisers and family members before being escorted to the execution chamber at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, Missouri.
Hosier was executed by lethal injection and pronounced dead shortly after the procedure began. Even as the sentence was carried out, he did not admit guilt for the murders.
His execution marked the end of a legal battle that had lasted more than a decade, but debate surrounding his claims of innocence continued among supporters and critics alike.
For the families of Angela and Rodney Gilpin, the execution brought the final chapter in a case that began with a tragic double homicide and ended on Missouri’s death row. For David Hosier, his final hours were defined by the same position he had maintained for years: that he was innocent of the crimes for which he was executed.
