State executes Gary Lee Roll

Roll, 48, died at 12:07 a.m., after the first of three lethal drugs was pumped into his veins at Potosi Correctional Center.

He was the third man put to death in Missouri this year and the 44th since the death penalty was reinstated in 1989.

Roll and his attorney, Michael Shipley, had filed a clemency request with Carnahan, but did not pursue court appeals.

Roll said in an interview that constant pain caused by a botched oral surgery 18 years ago led him to a life of drugs and, eventually, to murder.

“It affected my life so much,” Roll said. “It changed me.”

Roll was convicted of killing Sherry Scheper, 47, and her two sons, Randy, 17, and Curtis, 22, in their Cape Girardeau home during a robbery in August 1992. Police said Roll and two teen-age accomplices — all high on alcohol, marijuana and LSD — set out to steal money and drugs.

Roll said he hoped the victims’ family could forgive him because he didn’t believe they could find peace until they did.

“If I thought there was something I could say, I would say anything. But I don’t think there is,” he said.

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