Missouri murderer executed
He said he was in other state when woman, 3 kids killed
BONNE TERRE, Mo. — A Missouri man convicted of killing his live-in girlfriend and her three children was executed Tuesday despite his claims that he was in another state when the killings occurred.
Raheem Taylor, 58, was the third Missouri inmate put to death since November at the state prison in Bonne Terre. It was the nation’s fifth execution this year, all by lethal injection.
Taylor kicked his feet as the 5 grams of pentobarbital were administered, then took five or six deep breaths before all movement stopped. In a final statement, Taylor said Muslims don’t die but “live eternally in the hearts of our family and friends.”
“Death is not your enemy, it is your destiny. Look forward to meeting it. Peace!” he wrote in the statement.
Taylor, who previously went by the first name Leonard, long maintained that he was in California when Angela Rowe, her 10-yearold daughter Alexus Conley, 6-year-old daughter AcQreya Conley, and 5-year-old son Tyrese Conley were killed in 2004.
His supporters included the national NAACP, nearly three dozen civil rights and religious groups and the Midwest Innocence Project. But Taylor’s innocence claims were turned aside time and again.
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell, a Democrat, last week declined Taylor’s request for a hearing before a judge, stating the “facts are not there to support a credible case of innocence.”
Republican Gov. Mike Parson declined to grant clemency Monday, the same day the Missouri Supreme Court denied a stay request. Earlier Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene.
After the execution, Gerauan Rowe, Angela Rowe’s sister, said moving on remains difficult, more than 18 years after she lost her sister, nieces and nephew.
“I’m at a point in my life right now — I’m OK but I’m not,” she said. “But I know justice was served. It’s kind of hard trying to move forward, but I think I can do it.”
Taylor and Angela Rowe lived with the children at a home in the St. Louis suburb of Jennings.
Bob McCulloch, who was St. Louis County’s elected prosecutor at the time of the killings, told The Associated Press that evidence suggested Rowe and the kids were killed on the night of Nov. 22 or Nov. 23, at a time when Taylor was still in St. Louis. Taylor boarded a flight Nov. 26, 2004. to California.
Police were sent Dec. 3, 2004, to the home in Jennings after worried relatives said they hadn’t heard from Rowe.
Officers found the bodies of Rowe and her children. All four had been shot.
The initial finding by a medical examiner was that the killings likely happened within a few days of the discovery of the bodies — when Taylor was in California. But at Taylor’s trial, Medical Examiner Phillip Burch said the killings could have happened two or three weeks before the discovery of the bodies.
Taylor’s attorney, Kent Gipson, said several people, including relatives of Rowe and a neighbor, saw Rowe alive in the days after Taylor left St. Louis.
McCulloch said Taylor’s claim of innocence was “nonsense.”
DNA from Rowe’s blood was found on Taylor’s glasses when he was arrested, a relative taking him to the airport saw Taylor toss a gun into the sewer and Taylor’s brother told police that Taylor admitted to the crime, McCulloch said. Authorities believe Taylor shot Rowe during a violent argument, then killed the children because they were witnesses.
All three recent Missouri executions involved cases out of St. Louis County. Kevin Johnson was executed in November for killing a police officer in 2005. Amber McLaughlin was put to death Jan. 3 for killing a woman in 2003. It was believed to be the first execution of a transgender woman in the U.S.