XPost: alt.politics, alt.politics.democrats.d, alt.abortion   
   XPost: sbay.politics   
   From: cswhite@stlu.edu   
      
   A man who killed a suburban Kansas City gas station attendant in   
   front of the worker's young stepdaughter in 1994 was put to   
   death early Wednesday ? the ninth execution in Missouri this   
   year.   
      
   Leon Taylor, 56, was pronounced dead at 12:22 a.m. at the state   
   prison in Bonne Terre, minutes after receiving a lethal   
   injection. With Taylor's death, 2014 ties 1999 for having the   
   most executions in a year in Missouri.   
      
   Taylor shot worker Robert Newton to death in front of Newton's 8-   
   year-old stepdaughter during a gas station robbery in   
   Independence, Missouri. Taylor tried to kill the girl, too, but   
   the gun jammed.   
      
   Taylor's fate was sealed Tuesday when Gov. Jay Nixon declined to   
   grant clemency and the U.S. Supreme Court turned down his appeal.   
      
   Taylor, his body covered by a white sheet, could be seen in the   
   execution chamber talking to family members through the glass in   
   an adjacent room. Once the state started injecting 5 grams of   
   pentobarbital, Taylor's chest heaved for several seconds then   
   stopped. His jaw went slack and he displayed no other movement   
   for the rest of the process.   
      
   Four of Taylor's family members sat in a room to his left and   
   looked on without reaction as the drug killed Taylor in about   
   eight minutes. At a time when executions have gone awry in   
   Oklahoma, Ohio and Arizona and taking an extended period to kill   
   an inmate, Taylor's execution went off without any visible   
   hitches or complications with the drug or equipment.   
      
   In a written statement, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster   
   said Taylor "coldly murdered" Newton.   
      
   "Those who knew and loved Robert Newton waited two decades for   
   the imposition of justice that finally came early this morning,"   
   Koster said.   
      
   According to court records, Taylor, his half brother and half   
   sister decided to rob a gas station on April 14, 1994. Newton   
   was at the station with his stepdaughter.   
      
   Taylor entered the store, drew a gun and told Newton, 53, to put   
   $400 in a money bag. Newton complied and the half brother,   
   Willie Owens, took the money to the car.   
      
   Taylor then ordered Newton and the child to a back room. Newton   
   pleaded for Taylor not to shoot him in front of the little girl,   
   but Taylor shot him in the head. He tried to kill the girl but   
   the gun jammed, so he locked her in the room and the trio drove   
   away.   
      
   "She had the gun turned on her," said Michael Hunt, an assistant   
   Jackson County prosecutor who worked on the case. "It didn't   
   fire. If it had fired, we'd have had a double homicide."   
      
   Hunt said the child's testimony at trial was pivotal in the   
   death sentence.   
      
   "You can imagine what a horrible crime this was, but when you   
   see it coming out of a young person like that, it was hard to   
   listen to," Hunt said.   
      
   Taylor was arrested a week after the crime when police responded   
   to a tips hotline call.   
      
   Court appeals claimed the death penalty for Taylor was unfair   
   for several reasons.   
      
   Taylor's original jury deadlocked and a judge sentenced him to   
   death. When that was thrown out, an all-white jury gave Taylor,   
   who was black, the death sentence.   
      
   In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that only a jury could   
   impose a death sentence. Taylor's lawyers contended that a   
   Missouri Supreme Court ruling after the U.S. Supreme Court   
   decision led the state to commute at least 10 other death   
   sentences for inmates sentenced by a judge to life in prison ?   
   everyone except Taylor.   
      
   Attorney Elizabeth Carlyle said Taylor essentially was penalized   
   for successfully appealing his first conviction.   
      
   The clemency request to Nixon said Taylor turned his life around   
   in prison, becoming a devout Christian who helped other   
   prisoners. The petition also cited abuse Taylor suffered as a   
   child, saying his mother began giving him alcohol when he was 5   
   and that he later became addicted to alcohol and drugs.   
      
   http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/missouri-executes-leon-taylor-   
   1994-killing-27015372   
        
         
      
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