Roderick Nunley and Michael Taylor were sentenced to death by the State of Missouri for the murder of Ann Harrison
According to court documents Roderick Nunley and Michael Taylor would kidnap fifteen year old Ann Harrison as she waited for a bus. The two men would sexually assault and then murder the teen
Roderick Nunley and Michael Taylor would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Michael Taylor would be executed by lethal injection on February 26 2014
Roderick Nunley would be executed by lethal injection on September 1 2015
Roderick Nunley Photos
Michael Taylor Photos
Roderick Nunley And Michael Taylor FAQ
When Was Michael Taylor Executed
Michael Taylor was executed February 26 2014
When Was Roderick Nunley Executed
Roderick Nunley was executed on September 1 2015
Roderick Nunley Case
A man who spent nearly 25 years on Missouri’s death row was executed on Tuesday for the kidnapping, rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl.
Roderick Nunley, 50, became the sixth death row inmate to be put to death in Missouri this year. During the execution, his breathing became labored for a few seconds. He briefly opened his mouth before becoming still.
He was pronounced dead at 9.09pm CDT (10.09pm EDT).
“Despite openly admitting his guilt to the court, it has taken 25 years to get him to the execution chamber,” Missouri attorney general Chris Koster said in a statement.
“Nunley’s case offers a textbook example showing why society is so frustrated with a system that has become too cumbersome.”
Ann Harrison’s disappearance and death haunted the Kansas City area in March 1989. She was waiting for a school bus on her driveway, 20 yards from her front door, when Nunley and Michael Taylor drove by in a stolen car and made the spur-of-the-moment decision to abduct her.
Her body was found in the trunk of the abandoned car three days later. She had been raped and stabbed. Both men were sentenced to death in 1991. Taylor was executed last year.
Of 20 executions nationally in 2015, all but four have been in Missouri and Texas.
Missouri governor Jay Nixon on Tuesday denied a clemency request for Nunley, filed by death penalty opponents, asserting that racial bias played a role in the case because a prosecutor refused a plea deal that would have given Nunley life in prison without parole.
Nunley was black, as was Taylor, while the victim was white.
The US supreme court, meanwhile, denied several appeals from Nunley’s attorney, including one claiming that the death penalty amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.
Retired Kansas City detective Pete Edlund said the only thing cruel and unusual was how long Nunley and Taylor remained on death row. “They just take forever to do the deed,” Edlund told the Associated Press. “The delay in executing these two is just nuts because it didn’t have anything to do with their guilt. It was legal mumbo jumbo nonsense.”
Edlund said the case was cracked months after the murder when a man in jail for robbery – and seeking a $10,000 reward in the case – turned in Taylor and Nunley. Both men confessed, and some of Ann’s hair was found in carpeting at the home where the crime occurred.
Edlund said Ann’s father was a former reserve officer with the police department, and her uncle was a Kansas City officer. “To all of us, she was part of our police family,” Edlund said. “That made it even more important that we solve the case.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/sep/02/missouri-executes-man-death-row-roderick-nunley
