Prison ministers urge clemency for Skillicorn

JEFFERSON CITY — A former inmate and ministers who worked with a convicted killer who is scheduled to be executed in Missouri this week are asking that he be granted clemency.

Dennis Skillicorn is to be executed at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday for the 1994 killing of Richard Drummond, who stopped to help when Skillicorn's car broke down. It started a multistate crime rampage.

Since then, prison officials say Skillicorn has been a model inmate. Speaking at the state Capitol on Monday, prison ministers called him a "role model."

Jack Pyle was in the maximum security unit of a jail for a drug-related charge in 1994 with Skillicorn. Pyle says he eventually turned his life around after regularly talking with Skillicorn.