Post date: Feb 26, 2014 2:43:17 PM
A Missouri man is executed for abducting a 15-year-old girl as she waited for a school bus, then raping and murdering her.
(MISSOURI DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS) - Missouri's Michael Taylor was executed early on Wednesday (February 26) for abducting a 15-year-old girl as she waited for a school bus, then raping and murdering her, authorities said after the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed a flurry of petitions seeking a stay.
Michael Taylor died by lethal injection 25 years after he and an accomplice killedAnn Harrison near her home in the Kansas City area."It was at 12:10am that he was pronounced dead. 12:10 am, Michael Taylor was pronounced dead," Missouri Department of Public Safety spokesman Mike O'Connell said.
The 47-year-old had pleaded guilty. But his attorneys launched a string of appeals, including one asserting the drugs used for lethal injection could subject him to a slow and tortuous death.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied several petitions on Tuesday night (February 26) for a last-minute stay or further judicial review sought on Taylor's behalf by his attorney, John Simon.
"At approximately 10:45 we received word that all petitions before the U.S. Supreme Court had been denied and that we could begin proceeding with the execution sequence," Connell said.
Taylor did not use his right to request a specific last meal and was served potato soup and a sandwich, O'Connell added.
It was the state's 72nd execution since the death penalty was reinstated there in the 1970s and the second this year.