JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – A Republican-led Missouri House committee plans to hold a hearing on measures seeking to impeach Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon.

The Wednesday hearing on three separate impeachment resolutions includes one citing Nixon’s decision to allow same-sex couples who married legally in other states to file joint tax returns in Missouri. Another measure criticizes the governor for the amount of time he took to call a special election to fill legislative vacancies.

The final measure to be considered by the Judiciary Committee would impeach Nixon for his refusal to fire state officials involved with the Revenue Department’s decision last year to scan driver’s license applicants’ personal documents into a computer system.

Nixon has called the hearings “some sort of show.”

BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) — Missouri executed an inmate early Wednesday who was convicted of killing a farming couple in 1993.

William Rousan, 57, was scheduled to be executed at 12:01 a.m. He was declared dead at 12:10 a.m., Missouri Department of Corrections spokesman Mike O’Connell said.

The execution took place at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, which is just a few miles from the farm where the killings took place.

Prosecutors say Rousan, his teenage son Brent Rousan and William’s brother Robert Rousan murdered Charlie and Grace Lewis on Sept. 21, 1993 as part of a plot to steal two of the couple’s cows. Brent Rousan is serving life in prison without parole. Robert Rousan served seven years after pleading guilty to second-degree murder.

Gov. Jay Nixon declined William Rousan’s clemency request Tuesday evening, clearing the way for the execution to proceed. In a statement explaining his decision, Nixon said he thought Rousan’s sentence was appropriate for his alleged role as the mastermind behind the “cold-blooded plot” that led to the couple’s slayings.

Earlier Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court turned down Rousan’s request to delay his execution.

Efforts to spare Rousan’s life hinged an argument that has held little sway over the courts — concerns about the secrecy used to obtain the execution drug, and the possibility that a substandard drug could cause pain and suffering in the execution process.

Several states, including Missouri, now use compounded execution drugs purchased from unnamed pharmacies. Courts so far have allowed most executions to move forward. However, on Monday, the Oklahoma Supreme Court stayed the executions of two death row inmates who challenged the secrecy surrounding the process of procuring execution drugs.

Missouri has executed one death row inmate each month since November. Another Missouri inmate, Russell Bucklew, is scheduled for execution on May 21. Only Texas, with seven executions, has executed more inmates than Missouri’s four so far in 2014.

Rousan was sentenced to death for the killing of 62-year-old Grace Lewis, of rural St. Francois County, in 1993. He was sentenced to life in prison in the death of her 67-year-old husband, Charles. The killings were part of a plot to steal cattle from the Lewis farm near Bonne Terre.

Rousan also lived in the same area of St. Francois County, about 70 miles southwest of St. Louis. On Sept. 21, 1993, Rousan, his 16-year-old son and his brother concocted a plan to kill the couple and steal their cattle. Authorities said at trial that William Rousan was the ringleader.

The men drove by the farm, and William Rousan pointed out the cattle to steal. They parked about two miles away and hiked through the woods to the farm. They watched as the couple returned home. Charles Lewis began cutting the lawn with a riding mower while his wife spoke to the couple’s daughter on the phone.

Brent Rousan ambushed Charles Lewis, shooting him six times. Grace Lewis told her daughter on the phone she heard gunfire and stepped outside to check on the commotion. Brent Rousan shot her several times. She managed to go back into the home, but William Rousan followed her, placed a garment bag over her head and carried her outside.

He turned to his son and said, “Finish her off.” Brent Rousan fired a single shot into the side of her head.

The men placed the bodies in a tarp and put them near a shed. Later that night, they returned, along with another Rousan brother, loaded the bodies in the Lewis’ pickup truck, and took two cows, a VCR, jewelry, a saddle and other items.

For almost exactly a year, they got away with the crime. The couple seemingly had vanished without a trace.

In September 1994 investigators received two tips — Rousan’s brother-in-law, Bruce Williams, called police to implicate Rousan in the couple’s killings and a VCR sold to a pawn shop by a sister of William and Robert Rousan had been stolen from the Lewises. They were the breaks police had been waiting for.

The bodies were found buried in a shallow grave covered with concrete and a pile of horse manure on the farm where William Rousan was living at the time. After a four-day manhunt, Rousan was arrested while hiding in a barn on Sept. 20, 1994. He was caught with a .22-caliber semi-automatic rifle and a knife.

Brent Rousan pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Robert Rousan cooperated with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. He was released from prison in 2001, Missouri Department of Corrections spokesman David Owen said.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Police on both sides of the state line in the Kansas City metropolitan area believe they’re getting close to shutting down a group behind more than a dozen thefts from automatic teller machines since November.

KMBC-TV reports that some arrests have been made. But officers in a Missouri-Kansas task force are seeking at least one more person who might be a big piece of the puzzle.

Kansas City police Sgt. Bryan Jones says investigators are looking for George S. Schrand Jr. to get his side of the story on the ATM thefts.

Police say the Kansas City man also has outstanding arrest warrants in Missouri’s Clay County on assault and felonious restraining charges. He’s also being sought for a parole violation.

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas man charged with first-degree murder is afraid the tattooed mirror-image letters spelling out the word “murder” across his neck might prejudice a jury, so he is asking for a professional tattoo artist to remove or cover it up.

Prosecutors say they aren’t opposed to Jeffrey Chapman covering his tattoo, but Barton County’s sheriff says he’s against transporting Chapman to a licensed tattoo facility — the only places tattoo artists are allowed to practice under Kansas law.

The Great Bend Tribune  reports Chapman’s trial is scheduled to start Monday in the November 2011 killing of Damon Galliart, whose body was found by hunters in a roadside ditch southwest of Great Bend.

Chapman’s attorney says in a motion the tattoo would be extremely prejudicial if seen by a jury.

JIM SALTER, Associated Press

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has declined a Missouri death row inmate’s clemency request, hours before the inmate’s scheduled execution.

Nixon said in a statement Tuesday evening that he thinks 57-year-old William Rousan’s death sentence is appropriate. Rousan is scheduled to die at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday for the killing of a southeast Missouri farm couple 21 years ago.

The U.S. Supreme Court turned down Rousan’s stay request earlier Tuesday, meaning all of his appeals have been exhausted barring an unforeseen development.

Prosecutors say Rousan was the ringleader of the plot to steal Charles and Grace Lewis’ cattle in 1993 and to kill the couple in the process. His 16-year-old son, Brent, is serving life without parole, and his brother, Robert, served seven years in prison.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – A Missouri Senate committee has adopted a state budget provision to prohibit public colleges and universities from offering in-state tuition rates to students living in the country illegally.

But the Senate Appropriations Committee softened the outright ban and instead opted to prevent institutions from “knowingly” offering discounted tuition. The decision came Tuesday as the committee resolved the final sticking points in its budget proposal for the next fiscal year.

Committee Chairman Kurt Schaefer, of Columbia, says universities can’t always investigate whether students are lawful residents. The House included an overall ban in its budget proposal after a St. Louis Community College decided to offer cheaper tuition rates for those students.

The Senate language would bar colleges from recruiting students from other countries to attend Missouri schools at in-state rates.

Office of Gov. Jay Nixon

“With the simple stroke of my pen, this bill would separate Missouri from every state in the nation – as the only one unable to meet even the most basic obligations to its people,”Gov. Nixon said. “For generations, Democrats and Republicans have worked together to protect Missouri’s spotless AAA credit rating and keep our state on a fiscally responsible path. Now is not the time to veer off this proven course. That’s why I’m calling on members of the legislature to abandon this dangerous scheme, and work with us on a responsible approach – like the one I laid out earlier this year – that will protect public education and keep our state moving forward.”

• Senate Bill 509 contains a provision that would eliminate entirely the income tax for Missouri taxpayers with incomes over $9,000.
• Missouri’s tax code contains a number of brackets, or ranges of income subject to certain levels of taxation.  Currently, the top individual income tax bracket applies to all Missourians with incomes greater than $9,000 a year.
• The new Section 143.011.2(4) in Senate Bill 509 provides that once the legislation is fully phased-in, the top tax bracket “shall be eliminated.” Eliminating this top tax bracket would result in a new top tax bracket that applied to taxpayers with Missouri taxable income “Over $8,000 but not over $9,000.” However, there would no longer be a tax bracket for Missourians with incomes over $9,000, thereby eliminating altogether the income tax for such taxpayers.
• This analysis is supported by the independent legal opinion of Professor Cheryl D. Block of the Washington University School of Law. For more than thirty years, Professor Block has taught classes on tax law, legislation, and statutory interpretation. Professor Block is an expert on tax policy and author of a leading textbook on corporate taxation, which is in its fourth edition.
• Professor Block’s analysis confirms that the language in Senate Bill 509 would “completely eliminate the top state personal income tax bracket” and, as a result, taxpayers with incomes “over $9,000 would pay no tax at all.”
• A fiscal analysis performed by the Office of Administration, Division of Budget and Planning, shows that the provision eliminating the income tax on Missourians with incomes greater than $9,000 would reduce state general revenue by approximately $4.8 billion annually, eliminating 97 percent of all individual income tax collections and wiping out 65 percent of the state’s general revenue budget.
• A fiscal impact of this magnitude would jeopardize even basic funding for education and vital public servicesand is likely to result in a downgrade to Missouri’s spotless AAA credit rating, maintained over decades and reaffirmed by all three leading independent credit rating agencies just last year.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt says there are no federal solutions to many problems confronting governments.

The Republican lawmaker spoke Tuesday to a session of the Missouri House in Jefferson City.

Likewise, Blunt says legislators often should push back when told state government is better suited than local officials to tackle an issue.