Missourinet

The Missourinet has covered --and a Missourinet reporter has witnessed-- every execution since the death penalty was reinstated in Missouri in 1989 (George Mercer). The objective of this website is to be a repository of information about those who have been executed and those currently under death sentence. Along with death penalty news, you'll find some of the history of the death penalty in Missouri, including interviews (audio) with the condemned, members of victim's families and reporters assigned to cover executions. For additional news about the death penalty in Missouri, visit Missourinet.com.

Death Penalty News

US Supreme Court denies Michael Taylor's appeal
The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected the lethal injection appeal of convicted murdered and death row inmate Michael Taylor of Kansas City. The decision comes on the heels of last week's ruling in a Kentucky death penalty case in which the High Court upheld the constitutionality of lethal injection.

Taylor was one of two men sentenced to be executed for the 1989 kidnapping, rape, and murder of 15-year-old Ann Harrison who was nabbed while waiting for a school bus near her Kansas City home. Taylor had been scheduled to die in February of 2006 but the execution was stopped because of challenges to Missouri's lethal injection procedures.

Missouri has not conducted an execution since Marlin Gray was put to death in October of 2005.
Posted Monday, April 21, 2008, 4:11 pm   [Permanent Link]


Death penalty for St. Louis man convicted of quadruple murder
STLtoday: "A judge this morning sentenced Leonard Taylor to die by lethal injection for fatally shooting his girlfriend and her three children in Jennings in 2004. In St. Louis County Circuit Court today, Judge James R. Hartenbach imposed the sentences of four death penalties that a jury recommended on Feb. 29. Hartenbach also rejected requests for a new trial. Those requests were made by a trio of defense lawyers who represented Taylor and by Taylor himself. In his written statement to the court, Taylor called his convictions ``manifest injustice.' Taylor is 43.

This brings to 47 the number of people under a sentence of death in Missouri.

The sentencing comes just one day after the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that lethal injections, if properly administered, were a humane means of executing a condemned prisoner. By a 7-2 margin, the court rejected a constitutional attack on the main method of carrying out the death penalty across America. Its ruling cleared the way for executions to resume in several states after a seven-month delay.

Missouri's latest execution was in October, 2005.
Posted Thursday, April 17, 2008, 2:32 pm   [Permanent Link]


Jury recommends death sentence for McFadden
StlToday.com: "A jury in St. Louis County Circuit Court decided this afternoon that Vincent McFadden should die by lethal injection for the murder of his girlfriend's sister on May 15, 2003. It was the second time that a county jury had found McFadden guilty and had recommended the death penalty for the same crime. The jurors had the choice of death, or life in prison without parole. Judge Gary M. Gaertner Jr. set sentencing for June 12."
Posted Thursday, April 10, 2008, 3:10 pm   [Permanent Link]


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This web site is not associated with the Missouri Department of Corrections. Capital Punishment in Missouri is maintained by The Missourinet, a division of Learfield Communications, Jefferson City, Missouri. All inquiries regarding inmates, past or present, should be directed to the Missouri Department of Corrections, P.O. Box 236, Jefferson City, MO, 65102; email; Tel: 573.751.2389; Fax: 573.751.4099. Questions or comments about this website can be sent to The Missourinet.