Death case appeal centers on method
By TONY RIZZO
The Kansas City Star
Missouri has failed to correct the “arbitrary, dangerous manner” that it has used to execute its prisoners, according to attorneys for death row inmate Michael Taylor.
They asked a federal appeals court Tuesday to uphold the decision of a U.S. district judge in Kansas City who found that Missouri’s death penalty process creates a risk of unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment.
The arguments on behalf of Taylor were mailed Tuesday afternoon to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis.
Taylor, 39, came within hours of being executed in February before the appeals court ordered a halt.
Taylor and a co-defendant, Roderick Nunley, were sentenced to death for the 1989 rape and killing of Ann Harrison. The 15-year-old was abducted outside her Kansas City home while waiting for a school bus.
Taylor’s attorneys raised the same argument being made in courts around the country that the sequence of drugs used by most states, including Missouri, could subject an inmate to excruciating pain if not properly administered.
After several hearings, a U.S. district judge in June found Missouri’s execution process flawed and ordered several changes, including having a doctor trained in administering anesthesia oversee any future executions.
State officials appealed the ruling to the 8th Circuit. Oral arguments are scheduled for Jan. 10.
In their brief filed last month, Missouri officials said they were unable to find a doctor willing to accept that role, but state attorneys argued that safeguards in the written execution protocol, along with the use of a nurse, pharmacist or emergency medical technician to mix the chemicals, were a sufficient safeguard.
In their brief Tuesday, Taylor’s lawyers argued that Missouri has proposed only “cosmetic” remedies to careless execution practices.
They cited problems with a Florida execution and a judge’s order halting executions in California as part of the “increasing recognition” that lethal injection can be torturous.
To reach Tony Rizzo, call (816) 234-4435 or send e-mail to trizzo@kcstar.com.
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