KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Attorneys for Leonard Taylor, who was executed Tuesday, are calling for an investigation after they say Missouri put him to death while a final appeal was pending.
The lawyers claimed Missouri carried out the execution before Taylor exhausted his appeals, including in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. They urged the Inspector General’s Office of the Department of Corrections, as well as other agencies, to find out how and why Taylor’s death sentence was carried out and determine who was responsible.
“With last night’s execution of Leonard Raheem Taylor by the state of Missouri, a constitutionally intolerable event took place,” Taylor’s lawyers, including Kansas City-based Kent Gipson, said Wednesday.
