Attorney General's News Release

December 2, 1996

U.S. Supreme Court turns down petition of death row inmate who killed two Jefferson County schoolteachers

Jefferson City, Mo. — The U.S. Supreme Court this morning declined to review the habeas corpus petition of Eric Adam Schneider, sentenced to death for the Jan. 12, 1985, murders of Richard Schwendemann and Ronald Thompson, two teachers who lived in House Springs in Jefferson County. Schneider and two accomplices invaded the teachers' home, tied them up and beat and shot Schwendemann and stabbed Thompson 15 times.

Last May a federal appeals court affirmed an earlier decision by the federal district court that denied Schneider's habeas petition in 1995. The Office of Attorney General Jay Nixon defended the state against the petition.

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