Missouri sets execution date of Sept. 10 for Leon Taylor

The Missouri Supreme Court on Thursday set an execution date for the killer of an Independence service station attendant.

The court ordered that Leon Taylor, 56, be put to death Sept. 10 for the 1994 murder of 53-year-old Robert Newton. After shooting Newton, Taylor attempted to shoot Newton’s 8-year-old stepdaughter, but the gun misfired.

Taylor then tried to get another gun from two co-defendants, but they refused and fled, according to trial testimony.

Since late last year, the Supreme Court has set one execution date each month. All but one have been carried out. In May, the scheduled execution of Russell Bucklew was stayed to allow his attorneys time to appeal based on a health condition that his attorneys contend could cause Bucklew to suffer during an execution.

Since that stay, Missouri has executed two other men. The state’s next lethal injection execution is scheduled for Aug. 6.

If Michael Worthington is put to death as scheduled for the killing of a St. Louis area woman, it will be the first in the country since an Arizona execution Wednesday night that left the condemned man gasping and snorting for the more than two hours it took for him to die, according to witnesses.

Missouri uses a different lethal drug than the two-drug combination used in Arizona.

This story was originally published July 24, 2014 at 3:56 PM.