Leon Taylor was executed by the State of Missouri for the robbery and murder of Robert Newton
According to court documents Leon Taylor would rob a convenience store and in the process would murder clerk Robert Newton
Leon Taylor was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Leon Taylor was executed by lethal injection on November 19 2014
Leon Taylor Photos
Leon Taylor FAQ
When Was Leon Taylor Executed
Leon Taylor was executed on November 19 2014
Leon Taylor Case
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 on Wednesday – the ninth execution in the US state of Missouri this year.
Leon Taylor, 56, was pronounced dead at 12:22am 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 in front of Newton’s eight-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 on Tuesday when Governor Jay Nixon declined to grant clemency and the US supreme court turned down his appeal.
According to court records, Taylor, his half-brother and half-sister decided to rob a gas station on 14 April 1994. Newton was at the station with his stepdaughter.
Taylor entered the store, drew a gun and told Newton, 53, to put $400 (£260) 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 with Taylor not to shoot him in front of the 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 was 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 US supreme court ruled that only a jury could impose a death sentence. Taylor’s lawyers contended that a Missouri supreme court ruling after the US 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 penalised for successfully appealing against his first conviction.
The clemency request to Nixon said Taylor had 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 five and that he later became addicted to alcohol and drugs.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/nov/19/missouri-executes-ninth-inmate-2014-leon-taylor
