The Missouri Supreme Court has set a date for the execution of Roderick Nunley, one of two men responsible for the rape and murder of 15-year-old Ann Harrison in Kansas City 26 years ago. Nunley is scheduled to die by lethal injection September 1 at the prison in Bonne Terre.
Roderick Nunley
Nunley’s execution was set to be carried out in October, 2010, but was stayed at the eleventh hour because he had been sentenced to death by a judge and not a jury. Nunley had pleaded guilty to his role in those crimes, hoping to avoid the death penalty.
His accomplice in Harrison’s murder, Michael Taylor, was executed by lethal injection in February 2014.
Missouri has not scheduled an execution for August, making that the first month since November 2013 that an execution has not been scheduled. 16 executions have been carried out in that span, with some others have been called off.
Ann Harrison
Nunley and Taylor admitted to kidnapping Harrison the morning of March 22, 1989, while she was waiting for her school bus. They took her to Taylor’s mother’s house, forced her to crawl to the basement, and Taylor raped her. After that the two men forced her into their car, tied her up, and decided to kill her to prevent her from identifying them. Both men stabbed her before leaving her, dying, in the trunk of the car, parked in a nearby neighborhood.
His execution date was actually set last week but the release announcing it went to the media today, even as the state prepared to carry out the execution of David Zink for the 2001 murder of Amanda Morton of Strafford.
