Leonard Taylor Will Be Executed Today- He May Be Innocent

An execution for a Missouri man who murdered his girlfriend and her three children in 2004 is scheduled to happen today, February 7, 2023.

Leonard Taylor, 58, will be put to death by lethal injection.

Angela Rowe, her 10-year-old daughter Alexus Conley, her 6-year-old daughter AcQreya Conley, and her 5-year-old son Tyrese Conley were all found dead on December 3, 2004, after Rowe's relatives asked police to go to her home because they had not heard from her for several days.

They were all discovered dead inside their home in Jennings, Missouri; they had been shot.

A few days later, Taylor, Rowe's live-in boyfriend who had a history of drug and fraud-related offenses, was detained in Kentucky. Although he claims to have been thousands of miles away when the killings took place, he was found guilty in 2008.

In January, Taylor's lawyer Kent Gipson asked for a hearing on his client's claim of innocence. He did this because Missouri law lets a prosecutor file a motion asking for a hearing before a judge if there is new evidence that a person was wrongfully convicted.

But on Monday, Wesley Bell, who is the prosecutor for St. Louis County, said that he would not file that motion.

In a statement, he said, "The facts do not support a credible case of innocence."

But Bell said he would support putting off the execution "so that his lawyer can find out more about the time the victims died."

Taylor's claim that he is not guilty depends on when the victims were killed, because he left for California on November 26, 2004, eight days before their bodies were found.

Gipson said that at first, the police thought the killings happened when Taylor was in California, a few days before the bodies were found.

But at trial, Phillip Burch, a medical examiner said the killings could have happened two or three weeks before the bodies were found.

"After Leonard left town, a number of Rowe's family members and a neighbor who had no reason to lie said they saw her alive," Gipson said.

Gipson said he would ask the state Supreme Court to delay Taylor's execution for three or four months so that the claim of innocence could be looked into more thoroughly.

He said that if the court doesn't step in, Missouri could put to death a man who might be innocent.

"I think any fair-minded person who looks at all the evidence we have now would have serious doubts about whether or not he's guilty," Gipson said. "All we really want is for him to be able to have his day in court."

Lawyers from the Midwest Innocence Project, the Innocence Project, and the nonprofit public interest law firm Philips Black asked Missouri Governor Mike Parson to appoint an independent board of inquiry to look into Taylor's claim of innocence.

In a court filing, they said that several experts think Burch's testimony at trial about when the killings happened was wrong.

Governor Denies Clemency

If Taylor is executed on today, he will be the third person in Missouri to be put to death in the last three months.

Missouri Governor Mike Parson said on Monday that he will not stop Raheem Taylor's execution.

Taylor will be put to death at the state prison in Bonne Terre.

In a statement, Parson said, "Despite his self-serving claim of innocence, the facts of his guilt in this gruesome four-person murder remain." "The State of Missouri will carry out Taylor's sentences as ordered by the court."

Kevin Johnson was put to death on November 29, 2022, and Amber McLaughlin was put to death on January 3, 2023. Kevin Johnson was the first transgender person to be executed in the U.S.