Execution date nears for Missouri man

ST. LOUIS -- Attorneys for a Missouri man scheduled to be executed this week are asking the courts and Gov. Nixon to spare his life, alleging that race played a role in his death sentence.

Leon Taylor, 56, is scheduled to die by injection at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday for killing gas station attendant Robert Newton during a robbery in 1994 in the Kansas City suburb of Independence, Missouri. He would be the ninth man put to death in Missouri this year and the 11th since November 2013.

Taylor's lawyers have asked the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to grant a stay and have requested clemency from Nixon.

Taylor is black; Newton was white. The jury at Taylor's trial deadlocked on sentencing, and a judge imposed death. Later, the Missouri Supreme Court ordered a new sentencing hearing because of inflammatory comments made by a prosecutor.

An all-white jury was chosen and sentenced Taylor to death.

In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that only a jury -- and not a judge -- could impose a death sentence. While a jury did eventually impose the death sentence for Taylor, his lawyers argued that the original jury did not, so his sentence should be commuted to life in prison without parole.

The lawyers contend that following a Missouri Supreme Court ruling, the state commuted to life in prison without parole the sentence of every other Missouri death row inmate sentenced by a judge except Taylor. Attorney Elizabeth Carlyle contends Taylor is essentially penalized for successfully appealing his first conviction.

"We can't think of anything much more unfair than that," she said.

In addition to the racial concerns, the clemency petition cites abuse Taylor suffered as a child, saying his mother began giving him alcohol when he was 5. The petition says he became addicted to alcohol and drugs.

The petition was supported by 17 former and current state lawmakers and by black clergy members who cited Taylor's growth in Christianity while in prison.

"He's really a dramatically different person than he was when he did this crime," Carlyle 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 8-year-old 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 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. He locked her in the room and the trio drove away.

"It's always bad when you have a murder, but when you have a child involved, its worse," said Michael Hunt, an assistant Jackson County prosecutor who prosecuted the case.

Taylor was arrested a week later after police responded to a tips hotline call.