BONNE TERRE, Mo. — A Missouri man convicted of killing his live-in girlfriend and her three young children was executed Tuesday despite his claims that he was in another state when the killings occurred.
Raheem Taylor, 58, was the third Missouri inmate put to death since November at the state prison in Bonne Terre. It was the nation’s fifth execution this year, following a previous execution in Missouri, two in Texas and one in Oklahoma. All were by lethal injection.
Taylor kicked his feet as the 5 grams of pentobarbital were administered, then took five or six deep breaths before all movement stopped. In a final statement, Taylor said Muslims don’t die but “live eternally in the hearts of our family and friends.”
“Death is not your enemy, it is your destiny. Look forward to meeting it. Peace!” he wrote in the statement.
Taylor, who previously went by the first name Leonard, long maintained that he was in California when Angela Rowe, her 10-year-old daughter Alexus Conley, 6-year-old daughter AcQreya Conley, and 5-year-old son Tyrese Conley were killed in 2004. His supporters included the national NAACP, nearly three dozen civil rights and religious groups and the Midwest Innocence Project.
But Taylor’s innocence claims were turned aside time and again. St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell, a Democrat, last week declined Taylor’s request for a hearing before a judge, stating the “facts are not there to support a credible case of innocence.”
Republican Gov. Mike Parson declined to grant clemency on Monday, the same day the Missouri Supreme Court denied a stay request. Earlier Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene.
Gerauan Rowe, Angela Rowe’s sister, said after the execution that moving on remains difficult, more than 18 years after she lost her sister, nieces and nephew.
“I’m at a point in my life right now — I’m OK but I’m not,” she said. “But I know justice was served. It’s kind of hard trying to…
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