Michael Taylor was executed by the State of Missouri for the sexual assault and murder of a fifteen year old girl. According to court documents Michael Taylor and Roderick Nunley would kidnap fifteen year old Ann Harrison from a bus stop. The teen girl would be repeatedly sexually assaulted before being murdered. Both Michael Taylor and Roderick Nunley would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Roderick Nunley would be executed in 2015. Michael Taylor would be executed by lethal injection on February 26, 2014.
Michael Taylor More News
Missouri has gone ahead with executing a death-row prisoner using a drug from an unspecified source. The lethal injection of pentobarbital used to kill Michael Taylor, 47, who raped and murdered a teenage girl in 1989, was presumed to have been bought by the state from a compounding pharmacy – a supply arrangement that sparked legal challenges over the potential cruelty of using an unregulated drug.
Taylor offered no final statement. He mouthed silent words to his parents, two clergymen and two other relatives who witnessed his death. As the process began he took two deep breaths before closing his eyes for the last time.
Taylor was pronounced dead shortly after midnight. Federal courts and the governor had refused last-minute appeals from his attorneys, who argued that execution drugs purchased from a compounding pharmacy could have caused Taylor inhuman pain and suffering.
Nunley also was sentenced to death and is awaiting execution.
In their appeal Taylor’s attorneys questioned Missouri’s use of an unnamed compounding pharmacy to provide pentobarbital. 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.
Taylor’s attorneys argued use of the drug from an unspecified source could cause an inmate pain and suffering because no one could check if the maker was legitimate and had a record of producing safe drugs.
The official makers of pentobarbital refuse to sell it for executions.