Attorneys ask Missouri Supreme Court to halt Feb. 7 execution, AG’s office opposes delay

The Missouri Attorney General’s Office said this week that delaying the execution of Leonard Taylor “simply frustrates the interests of justice.”

On Tuesday, attorneys for Taylor filed a motion to postpone the Feb. 7 execution, saying they want 90 to 120 days to gather more evidence about the quadruple homicide. Taylor has maintained his innocence in the fatal shootings of his girlfriend Angela Rowe and her three young children near St. Louis. Their bodies were discovered Dec. 3, 2004.

Prosecutors have never disputed that Taylor had flown from Missouri 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 at 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.

Last week, 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.

That meant the condition of the bodies suggested the victims were killed after Taylor left town.

In a response, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office said competing expert testimony was not enough to prove innocence. They also pointed to other evidence. During the investigation, Perry Taylor, Leonard Taylor’s brother, told police Leonard Taylor had confessed to the killings. Rowe did not show up to work starting Nov. 26, 2004, and the children did not return to school on Nov. 29, 2004.

Taylor’s attorneys said Perry Taylor’s interrogation was coerced by police, and that a neighbor and family members of the victims talked to them after Taylor had left for California.

Earlier this week, the St. Louis Prosecutor’s Office said Taylor’s claims do not “support a credible case of innocence.” But Prosecutor Wesley Bell said he supports the stay filed by Taylor’s attorneys “so his counsel may further investigate the time that the victims died, based on the affidavit from Dr. Jane Turner.”

The motion for a stay will be considered by the Missouri Supreme Court. A clemency application is also under review with Gov. Mike Parson.

This story was originally published February 2, 2023 at 3:58 PM.

Katie Moore

The Kansas City Star

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Katie Moore was an enterprise and accountability reporter for The Star. She covered justice issues, including policing, prison conditions and the death penalty. She is a University of Kansas graduate and began her career as a reporter in 2015 in her hometown of Topeka, Kansas.