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Missouri executes man for schoolgirl rape, murder
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A Missouri man was executed early on Wednesday for abducting a 15-year-old girl as she waited for a school bus, then raping and murdering her, authorities said after the US Supreme Court dismissed a flurry of petitions seeking a stay.
Michael Taylor died by lethal injection 25 years after he and an accomplice killed Ann Harrison near her home in the Kansas City area.
The 47-year-old had pleaded guilty. But his attorneys launched a string of appeals, including one asserting the drugs used for the lethal injection could subject him to a slow and tortuous death.
The US Supreme Court denied several petitions on Tuesday night for a last-minute stay or further judicial review sought by Taylor’s attorney.
“The abduction of Ann ... and her subsequent rape and murder, were crimes so brutal that they remain seared in the minds of many Kansas City residents,” said Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, who had refused to grant Taylor clemency earlier in the day.
Taylor made no last statement and was pronounced dead at 12:10am at a prison in Bonne Terre, said Mike O’Connell, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Public Safety.
He also did not use his right to request a specific last meal and was served potato soup and a sandwich, O’Connell added.
It was Missouri’s 72nd execution since the death penalty was reinstated there in the 1970s, the second this year.
“It may be a small victory for the State of Missouri but Michael has won in the end,” Taylor’s family said in a statement reported by the Kansas City Star newspaper.
“He has struggled for years with the guilt of not stopping a horrendous crime, and has dedicated much of his time in prison to the memory of Ann Harrison through his work with hospice, tutoring and mentoring,” the statement said.
Before the execution, Ann’s mother Janel Harrison also made a public statement, asking for justice. “There should be an ultimate penalty,” she said.
Taylor’s lawyers had said that Missouri should have allowed all appeals to be exhausted.
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster said that Taylor had more than enough time to file appeals on any issue.
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