After a last-minute appeal to the Supreme Court, the state of Missouri executed a man who had been found guilty of killing his girlfriend and three children.
In November 2004, at their home in Jennings, Missouri, Angela Rowe and her three kids Alexus Conley, 10, AcQreya Conley, 6, and Tyrese Conley, 5, were murdered. Leonard Taylor, 58, was later proven responsible for their deaths.
Missouri Executes Leonard Taylor
Taylor took five or six deep breaths as he received 5 grams of pentobarbital before going lifeless. Muslims, according to Taylor's closing remarks, "live eternally in the hearts of our family and friends."
Taylor's final supper was "a seafood platter with shrimp, French fries, a cheeseburger, cheesecake, and vanilla ice cream," a representative for the Missouri Department of Corrections told Fox News Digital.
Taylor insisted that he was not in Missouri when the bodies were discovered and were instead in California at the time the four persons were slain. On November 26, 2004, he boarded an airplane bound for California. After family members informed authorities that they hadn't heard from Rowe recently, the four bodies were discovered on December 6, 2004.
While Taylor was in California, Medical Examiner Phillip Burch stated that the killings may have occurred two to three weeks before the corpses were discovered, contradicting an earlier medical examiner's conclusion that the deaths probably happened within a few days of the bodies being discovered.
After Taylor left for California, several others reportedly spotted Rowe, according to his attorney Kent Gipson. In a court document, Deja Taylor, Taylor's California-based daughter, said that they spoke on the phone while her father was visiting Rowe.
The court document claims that Deja Taylor's sister and mother supported her story. The Midwest Innocence Project, the national NAACP, and almost thirty other civil rights and religious organizations were among his supporters.
Taylor's claims of innocence, however, were repeatedly rejected. Wesley Bell, the prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County and a Democrat, turned down Taylor's request for a court hearing last week, saying that the "facts are not there to sustain a credible case of innocence."
On Monday, the Missouri Supreme Court rejected a plea for a stay of the sentence, and Republican governor Mike Parson declined to grant clemency. According to CBS News, the US Supreme Court declined to get involved earlier on Tuesday.
Without a doubt, Taylor was not in Missouri when the deaths were discovered. The exact time the family was slaughtered is unknown. On November 26, 2004, Taylor boarded an aircraft for California. Police were called to the Jennings residence on December 3, 2004, after frightened family members reported not hearing from Rowe. The police discovered Rowe and her kids' remains. They had all been shot.
The first conclusion of a medical examiner was that Taylor was in California when the killings most likely occurred within a few days of the corpses being discovered. However, Medical Examiner Phillip Burch testified during Taylor's trial that the murders may have occurred two or three weeks before the corpses' discovery.
According to Taylor's lawyer Kent Gipson, Rowe's relatives and a neighbor were among the persons who saw Rowe alive in the days after Taylor departed St. Louis. At the time of the deaths, Bob McCulloch, the elected prosecutor for St. Louis County, called Taylor's claim of innocence "nonsense" and stated the justifications offered by his daughter and her family members were "totally made up."
According to evidence, McCulloch said that Rowe and the children were slain on the night of November 22 or on November 23 while Taylor was still in St. Louis. He said that, on average, Rowe sent or received about 70 SMS or calls daily. She made none beginning on November 23.
A relative driving Taylor to the airport witnessed Taylor throw a pistol into the sewer, and Taylor's brother informed police that Taylor acknowledged the murder, according to McCulloch. Additionally, when he was detained, DNA from Rowe's blood was discovered on Taylor's glasses. Authorities think Taylor killed the kids because they were witnesses after shooting Rowe during a heated confrontation.
The three most recent executions in Missouri involved cases outside of St. Louis County. In November, Kevin Johnson was executed for the 2005 murder of a police officer. Amber McLaughlin was executed on January 3 for the 2003 murder of a woman. She was considered the first transgender woman to be executed in the United States.
Missouri's Execution Sparks Protests
Taylor's attorneys requested that the Missouri Supreme Court order a prison warden to permit Taylor's spiritual counselor to accompany him to the execution chamber. According to Megan Crane, co-director of the MacArthur Justice Center's Missouri office in St. Louis, Taylor had a "credible claim of innocence" that was never heard or considered by a court of law.
She said there was a pending legal challenge that the state violated the man's religious liberties by carrying out the death sentence. Statewide demonstrations against the death penalty attracted protesters, as per Kansas City.
Protests were organized in St. Louis, Columbia, Kansas City, Jefferson City, Columbia, and Bonne Terre. Before Taylor's execution, around two dozen people congregated in Kansas City at 39th Street and Troost Avenue as part of a protest organized by Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
As passing automobiles honked in solidarity, several people waved placards. Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty planned a statewide demonstration to draw demonstrators to the Kansas City junction of 39th Street and Troost Avenue on Tuesday afternoon.
The group showed up to express opposition to Leonard "Raheem" Taylor, 58, being put to death for a 2004 triple homicide in the St. Louis region even though he maintained his innocence.
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