Dateline Producer Begs For Death Penalty Waiver To Crack Three Murder Cases

Dateline NBC producer Shane Bishop has offered the governors of Texas and Florida a deal: “Waive the death penalty for a murder suspect, and he’ll help solve three murder cases in their states,” the Austin American-Statesman reports.

Bishop sent the letter to Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Nov. 29. It “offers to help solve the cold cases if the governors would ‘guarantee not to pursue the death penalty’ against an Arkansas convict serving life without parole for murder.”

Apparently Ronning told Bishop that he committed seven murders, but a written no-death penalty guarantee is necessary to get Ronning to discuss the case.

“Why am I writing you to beg you take up this effort? Because it’s the right thing to do,” Bishop wrote. “But I am certain Dateline NBC would give substantial coverage to the solving of these three cold case murders tied to a serial killer, and the essential roles played by the Governors of Texas and Florida.”

Bishop has been a Dateline producer for 12 years. An NBC spokesperson said Bishop wrote the letter on his own, not on behalf of Dateline…

> “This is making the rounds at NBC,” an insider says. “People are saying Corvo was on the line at Dateline. Does this push him over the edge?”