Execution Date Set for Heartless Black Thug Who Killed White Man in Front of His 8-Year-Old Stepdaughter

STL Today
July 28, 2014

The Missouri Supreme Court today set a Sept. 10 execution date for Leon Taylor, who murdered a service station attendant in Independence, Mo., in 1994.

Leon Taylor, 56, killed Robert Newton during a robbery that was witnessed by Newton’s 8-year-old stepdaughter. According to trial testimony, Taylor also pointed the gun at the girl’s head and pulled the trigger, but the weapon jammed.

The order for the execution of Taylor came a day after a botched execution in Arizona rekindled debate over the death penalty.

Joseph Rudolph Wood took nearly two hours to die and gasped for about 90 minutes during his execution in Arizona on Wednesday. The execution took so long that his lawyers had time to file an emergency appeal while it was ongoing. The Arizona Supreme Court also called an impromptu hearing on the matter and learned of his death during the discussions.

It was the third execution in six months to go awry, handing potentially new evidence to those building a case against lethal injection as cruel and unusual punishment.

It was not yet clear whether the problems in Arizona would have consequences for Missouri. Arizona uses a two drug cocktail including a Valium-like drug, midazolam, with an opioid, hydromorphone.

Missouri, meanwhile, uses a single heavy dose of the sedative pentobarbital.

“The State of Missouri has its own execution protocol,” Scott Holste, the press secretary for Gov. Jay Nixon, wrote in an email. “This protocol has been upheld by the courts, and used by the Department of Corrections to fulfill its obligation under the law and carry out these sentences for the most heinous of crimes in an efficient, effective and humane manner.  The Governor continues to support the ultimate punishment imposed by juries and courts for the most merciless and violent crimes.”

The next execution in the United States is scheduled to be in Missouri on Aug. 6. Michael Shane Worthington, convicted of murder, rape and first-degree burglary in the slaying of Melinda “Mindy” Griffin, 24, at her condominium in Lake Saint Louis on Sept. 30, 1995.