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Missouri man executed for 1991 slaying of jeweler after day of appeals and denials
• BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) -- In 1991, Herbert Smulls called jeweler Stephen Honickman and set up an appointment to meet at his store in suburban St. Louis. He said he wanted to buy a diamond for his fiancee.
• It was a set up. Smulls wanted to rob the store and took along a 15-year-old friend to help commit what became a far worse crime: Honickman was shot to death. Honickman's wife, Florence, was also shot, but survived by faking death in a pool of her own blood until the assailants left.
• Late Wednesday night, Smulls was put to death with a lethal dose of pentobarbital, Missouri's third execution since November and the third since switching to the new drug that's made by a compounding pharmacy the state refuses to name.
• Smulls, 56, did not have any final words. The process was brief, Smulls mouthed a few words to his two witnesses, who were not identified, then breathed heavily twice and shut his eyes for good. He was pronounced dead at 10:20 p.m.
• Florence Honickman spoke to the media after the execution, flanked by her adult son and daughter. She questioned why it took 22 years of appeals before Smulls was put to death.
• ___
SUPER BOWL: Players believe coordinators deserve to be head coaches, glad they aren't
• JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) -- Super Bowl coordinators would seem ripe for the head coaching market. Yet the four in Sunday's game aren't going anywhere.
• At least not to other NFL teams as the field boss, because all openings have been filled.
• That's too bad, say members of the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks.
• It's also good.
• "I definitely feel like he will make a great head coach," Seahawks middle linebacker Bobby Wagner said Wednesday of defensive coordinator Dan Quinn. "He's very positive, knows how to lead and teach, and players feed off that.
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