KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Attorneys for Missouri prisoner Leonard “Raheem” Taylor, who is scheduled to be executed Tuesday amid mounting calls for his innocence claims to be vetted, have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In seeking a stay of execution, Taylor’s lawyers argued a condemned man’s claim of wrongful conviction should receive “much more thorough and careful scrutiny” and that the Missouri Supreme Court failed when it denied him an evidence hearing.
“The hasty and summary denial of this claim by the court below undermines the integrity of the criminal justice system and, if left undisturbed will result in a constitutionally intolerable event on Tuesday evening — the execution of an innocent man,” they wrote.
