U.S. Supreme Court won't stop Missouri execution
12:40 a.m. EST February 26, 2014
ST. LOUIS (AP) The U.S. Supreme Court refused late Tuesday to halt the pending execution of a Missouri inmate who was convicted of abducting, raping and fatally stabbing a Kansas City teenager nearly 25 years ago.
Michael Taylor, 47, is scheduled for lethal injection at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday. The high court issued its rulings about an hour earlier, shortly after the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Taylor's request for a rehearing and Gov. Jay Nixon denied a clemency request.
Taylor's execution will mark Missouri's fourth lethal injection in as many months.
His attorneys' argument focused in part on Missouri's use of an unnamed compounding pharmacy to provide the execution drug, pentobarbital. The state, after years of using a three-drug execution method, switched to pentobarbital late last year. State officials say there were no outward signs of distress by three inmates recently executed using a single dose of pentobarbital.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/02/26/missouri-execution/5827609/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=206567