A Missouri inmate was executed early Wednesday for abducting, raping and killing a Kansas City teenager as she waited for her school bus in 1989, marking the state's fourth lethal injection in as many months, according to BBC News.
Michael Taylor, 47, was pronounced dead at 12:10 a.m. at the state prison in Bonne Terre, BBC News reported.
Federal courts and the governor had refused last-minute appeals from his attorneys, who argued that the execution drug purchased from a compounding pharmacy could have caused Taylor inhuman pain and suffering, according to BBC News.
As the process began, he took two deep breaths before closing his eyes for the last time. There were no obvious signs of distress, BBC News reported.
In their appeals, Taylor's attorneys questioned Missouri's use of an unnamed compounding pharmacy to provide the execution drug, pentobarbital, according to BBC News. They also cited concerns about the state executing inmates before appeals were complete and argued that Taylor's original trial attorney was so overworked that she encouraged him to plead guilty.
After using a three-drug execution method for years, Missouri switched late last year to pentobarbital, BBC News reported. The same drug had been used in three earlier Missouri executions, and state officials said none of those inmates showed outward signs of distress.
Attorneys for Taylor argued using a drug from a compounding pharmacy, which unlike large pharmaceutical companies are not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, runs the risk of causing pain and suffering during the execution, according to BBC News.
The Oklahoma-based compounding pharmacy Apothecary Shoppe agreed last week that it wouldn't supply the pentobarbital for Taylor's execution, forcing Missouri to find a new supplier, BBC News reported. Attorney General Chris Koster's office said a new provider had been found, but Koster refused to name the pharmacy, citing the state's execution protocol that allows the manufacturer anonymity.
Pete Edlund doesn't want to hear it. The retired Kansas City police detective led the investigation into the teenager's death.
"Cruel and unusual punishment would be if we killed them the same way they killed Annie Harrison," Pete Edlund, the retired Kansas City Police detective who led the investigation, said, according to BBC News. "Get a damn rope, string them up, put them in the gas chamber. Whatever it takes."
"She just turned 15," Edlund said, BBC News reported. "It was a tragedy all the way around. This was an innocent child."
