The Missouri Supreme Court has set a new execution date for a man who murdered an Independence service station attendant 20 years ago.
Leon Taylor (courtesy; Missouri Department of Corrections)
Leon Taylor, 56, is scheduled to die by lethal injection November 19 at the prison in Bonne Terre. The court had scheduled his execution for this month but withdrew that death warrant after his lawyers said they would be unable to work on his case at that time.
Instead, the Court ordered Earl Ringo, Junior, to be executed for the 1998 double murders of a Columbia restaurant manager and a delivery driver. That execution, the eighth by Missouri this year, was carried out September 10.
On April 14, 1994, Robert Newton was working at a service station and his 8-year-old stepdaughter was keeping him company. Taylor and two siblings had purchased gas from the station. Taylor then returned, pulled a gun, and threatened to shoot Newton if he didn’t give Taylor money. Newton gave him about $400 in a bank bag. Taylor then led Newton to a back room and shot him in the head, killing him.
Taylor turned the gun on the little girl and pulled the trigger, but the gun jammed. He then locked the girl in the back room with her stepfather.
Missouri is next scheduled to execute Mark Christeson on the morning of October 29.
