Missouri Execution: Missouri Executes Man For 1989 Killing Of 15-Year-Old Girl

Missouri has executed a man who was guilty of kidnapping, raping and killing a 15-year-old girl in 1989 after he spent almost 25 years on death row.

Roderick Nunley, 50, was executed via injection Tuesday evening. There have been 20 executions all over the U.S. in 2015 alone, 10 of which were in Texas and six of which were in Missouri, according to the Associated Press.

Nunley's attorney had three pending appeals presented to the U.S. Supreme Court. One of the three was the constitutionality of the death penalty, while the other questioned whether the accused should have been convicted under a jury and not a judge. Another appeal presented on Monday was regarding Missouri's secretive acquisition of the execution drug.

Nunley's breathing appeared to be a little harder for a number of seconds during his execution. He then opened his mouth, then no longer moved. He was pronounced dead at 9:09 p.m local time. Michael Taylor, his co-defendant, was executed last year.

"Despite openly admitting his guilt to the court, it has taken 25 years to get him to the execution chamber," Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster said, according to The Times of India. "Nunley's case offers a textbook example showing why society is so frustrated with a system that has become too cumbersome."

Nunley and Taylor binged on cocaine on March 22, 1989 and had stolen a car afterwards. They were driving in Kansas City when they saw Ann Harrison, 15, waiting for her school bus. They grabbed the girl and brought her to the home of Nunley's mother, where they raped and sodomized her and then stabbed her a number of times on the stomach and neck, according to The Huffington Post. The girl was found dead in the stolen car's trunk.

Nunley had no final statement and had no witness before he died, but he was visited beforehand by his daughter, who came with a spiritual adviser.