QUOTE OF THE DAY: "If it’s just my time for going on home — from Allah we come, to Allah we return,” Taylor said. “If that’s what it is, I accept that without any anger, without any frustration, without any hatred or anything like that. One thing you will not do, you will not break my spirit.”
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "In court documents filed in opposition to a stay of execution, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office argued that competing expert testimony was not enough to prove innocence. "
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PREAMBLE: "Missouri executed three people in 10 weeks starting in November 2022: Kevin Johnson, Amber McLaughlin and Leonard Taylor, who maintained that he was innocent, died by lethal injection. L
STORY: 'You will not break my spirit': Leonard Taylor speaks out before execution date, by Reporter Katie Moore, published by The Kansas City Star, on February 8, 2023.
GIST: "Update: Leonard “Raheem” Taylor was executed by lethal injection at the state prison in Bonne Terre.
He was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m. on Jan. 7.
Leonard “Raheem” Taylor answered the phone exuberantly on Monday from a prison in eastern Missouri.
The 58 year old is scheduled to be executed Tuesday. But he said he remains hopeful. “I know I got a lot of people supporting me,” he said.
That includes his family, legal team and others who support his innocence claims or are opposed to the death penalty. “If Allah sees fit and he gives me reprieve and allows it to pass me,” Taylor a devout Muslim, said, then he can “go ahead on and show my innocence in court.”
Taylor has maintained he is innocent since he was charged in a quadruple homicide and sentenced to death in 2008.
He says he was halfway across the country when his girlfriend Angela Rowe and her three young children were fatally shot at their home near St. Louis.
Their bodies were discovered Dec. 3, 2004.
Surveillance video shows Taylor boarded a Southwest flight from St. Louis to southern California a week before, on Nov. 26, 2004.
Initially, investigators said the victims had been killed up to a few days before they were discovered.
But during the trial, St. Louis County medical examiner Phillip Burch told jurors that the temperature in the house had been in the 50s, which led to the estimated time of death changing.
The murders could have taken place two to three weeks before the bodies were discovered — when Taylor would still have been in town.
On Jan. 25, forensic pathologist Jane Turner cast doubt on Burch’s finding, saying there was evidence of rigor mortis when the victims were discovered.
That would not last more than a week after death even with the cold temperature in the house, according to Turner.
Other postmortem changes that would occur a week or more after death were not present.
Based on Turner’s findings, Taylor would have been thousands of miles away on the West Coast when the murders took place.
On Saturday, Taylor was transferred from Potosi Correctional Center to Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center, in Bonne Terre, where executions take place.
The death warrant goes into effect at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
Multiple efforts to delay the execution are ongoing. Taylor’s attorneys have filed a petition with the Missouri Supreme Court to halt the execution.
They have also sent a clemency petition to Gov. Mike Parson’s office. The Midwest Innocence Project has asked Parson to convene a board of inquiry to investigate Taylor’s innocence claims. Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty has been advocating on Taylor’s behalf and U.S. Rep. Cori Bush has called on the execution to be stopped.
This story was originally published February 6, 2023, 2:34 PM. RELATED STORIES FROM KANSAS CITY STAR
Read more at: https://www.kansascity.com/news/state/missouri/article272183108.html#storylink=cpy
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.kansascity.com/news/state/missouri/article272183108.html
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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