Michael Shane Worthington Archives

State Supreme Court sets execution date for convicted murderer Leon Taylor

July 24, 2014 By Mike Lear

The State Supreme Court has set a date for the execution of convicted murderer Leon Taylor. He is scheduled to die by lethal injection just after midnight, September 10, at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center at Bonne Terre.

Leon Taylor (courtesy; Missouri Department of Corrections)

Taylor was convicted of the 1994 murder of Robert Newton, who was attending a gas station in Jackson County where Taylor and two of his half-siblings had purchased gas.

Taylor pulled a gun and demanded money from Newton, who gave the trio $400 in a bank money bag. Taylor then led Newton to a back room and shot him in the head, killing him.

Taylor then turned the gun on Newton’s eight-year-old step daughter Sarah Yates and pulled the trigger, but the gun jammed and the little girl was spared. Taylor wanted to return to the gas station and get the girl but his step-siblings wanted to leave, so they did.

The state’s next scheduled execution is that of Michael Shane Worthington, for the murder 19 years ago of Mindy Griffin in St. Louis. He is scheduled to be executed early the morning of August 6.

Ruling against California death penalty could be raised in Missouri execution cases

July 18, 2014 By Mike Lear

A federal judge in California has ruled that state’s death penalty takes so long to be carried out it breaks the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The ruling could have an impact on cases in Missouri.

Washington University Professor Peter Joy

The judge ruled that delays of 25 years or more for appeals and the rarely carrying out of executions by California mean that state’s death penalty has become arbitrary and pointless.

Washington University Law Professor Peter Joy says the ruling could come up in Missouri cases.

“Any lawyer representing somebody on death row who’s been on death row for a lengthy period of time should raise this argument now because there is this decision out there,” says Joy.

About 40 percent of California’s death row inmates have been there more than 19 years. Three Missouri inmates have been awaiting execution for 25 years, and about 22 percent of condemned Missouri inmates have been waiting 19 years or more.

Not all the delays cited by the judge stem from appeals.

Joy says also noted were, “delays [related to] the system itself, and have nothing to do with the person filing a lot of appeals.”

“Out in California,” says Joy, “There’s a much lengthier time before the court finds someone to appoint as a lawyer to represent people that have been convicted in their appeals and post-conviction relief. There isn’t that lengthy a time here in Missouri but there are still issues with the way the process works that take a long time.”

The issue could be raised by attorneys for Michael Shane Worthington, who Missouri is scheduled to execute August 6 and who has been awaiting execution for 15 years.

Mother of condemned man’s victim reacts to setting of his execution date

July 1, 2014 By Mike Lear

Carol Angelbeck has been waiting 15 years since her daughter’s killer was sentenced to death. Now she has learned her wait could end in a little more than a month.

Melinda Griffin

24-year-old Mindy Griffin was found dead in her apartment on September 30, 1995, the victim of rape and murder. Her stolen car was found later that day being driven by her neighbor, Michael Shane Worthington. His confession and DNA later tied him to the murder and he was sentenced to death in 1999.

Angelbeck, now 76, was told Monday morning that the Supreme Court has set August 6 as the date for his execution.

“I just couldn’t believe that it was finally going to come to an end. That I was finally going to not have to deal with this portion of the murder of my daughter,” Angelbeck tells Missourinet. “I didn’t have to deal with the justice system or anything else anymore. All I have to think about is my Mindy and what she would be doing by now.”

Angelbeck now lives in Florida with her husband where they raise horses. She has already started making arrangements for others to care for their property and animals, and to fly to Missouri to be here for Worthington’s execution.

She says it’s not a matter of closure or revenge for her.

“I guess I’ve always felt that if you believe … and I could be wrong … but for me, I feel like if you believe in the death penalty as a punishment for the most heinous of murders, then you should be willing to go through with the whole thing,” says Angelbeck.

She says she doesn’t know how she will feel when the execution is over.

“I’m sure that every emotion runs through your mind,” Angelbeck says. “It’s another human being dying, but yet if you think about your child that’s been murdered … I don’t know … I really don’t know what I’m going to feel until it’s over.”

Angelbeck says she hasn’t known how to feel for more than 18 years.

“We were thrown into the justice system when Mindy was murdered. I can remember the day after day after day living with this. The anger when I found out who did this to Mindy, when they showed me his picture. The anger was so bad in me for probably the first 5 or 10 years. I just couldn’t understand how he could do this to my daughter,” says Angelbeck. “It went from anger to not knowing what to do next, to trying to see that justice was done.”

One thing she does not expect is for Worthington’s death to put an end to any part of her life now. Over the years since Mindy’s death, Angelbeck has worked with and encouraged families of other murder victims as a chapter leader for Parents of Murdered Children.

She says she can’t stop that because there are still people that need help.

“One man in particular … his sister was violently murdered by a man in (the prison in) Potosi and he’s up for execution too, and I talk to him all the time,” says Angelbeck. “There’s about four or five other people, and so we all really kind of support each other.”

One of Angelbeck’s frustrations with the system concerns the length of time it takes to carry out death sentences. She notes the recent decision by the state Supreme Court in Florida that upheld that state’s “Timely Justice Act,” designed to keep condemned inmates from languishing on death row for decades before their sentences are carried out.

Still, she says if she could go back now and choose for Worthington to be sentenced to life in prison, to save herself some of the grief and struggles of the past two decades, she would not change anything. She says it is the work she has done that has meant Mindy’s death was not in vain.

“For me, I think it was helping others as Parents of Murdered Children’s chapter leader and for fighting to see that justice is done for these victims, that, to me, is what got me through the last 18 years.”

Missouri sets August execution date for inmate Michael Shane Worthington

June 30, 2014 By Mike Lear

The state Supreme Court has issued an execution order for a former St. Louis man sentenced to death for the September 1995 murder of his neighbor. 43-year-old Michael Shane Worthington is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection early the morning of August 6 at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre.

Michael Shane Worthington (Courtesy; Missouri Department of Corrections)

Worthington was sentenced in 1999 for strangling 24-year-old Melinda Griffin to death in her apartment. Worthington had entered through a window he had cut the screen out of and strangled her to unconsciousness, then raped her until she woke up and struggled. He then beat her and strangled her to death.

Worthington was caught the next morning driving her car, which he had stolen along with her jewelry, credit cards and mobile phone. He confessed to the crime and DNA linked him to it.

Worthington could become the ninth inmate executed in Missouri since November. Missouri is next scheduled to execute John Middleton on July 16 for three drug-related murders in 1995.