As of this moment, Taylor’s Feb. 1 execution has been stayed; however, there is a risk that the stay will be lifted as the original execution date approaches.
Taylor pleaded guilty to charges of first-degree murder, forcible rape, armed criminal action, and kidnapping. He received the death penalty for the murder charge in spite of his guilty plea. The prosecutor in the case refused to offer a plea bargain, a decision that Taylor claimed was racially motivated. The first judge to sentence Taylor, Judge Alvin Randall, accepted Taylor’s guilty plea. Randall sentenced Taylor to death, but Taylor appealed, claiming that Randall had been drinking prior to sentencing. Though the Missouri Supreme Court vacated the judgment, the replacement judge sentenced Taylor to death as well.
Taylor had requested the opportunity to withdraw his guilty plea after he was forced to face sentencing by a different judge than the one before whom the initial guilty plea was entered. The Missouri Supreme Court denied him this. However, in a dissenting opinion the court’s Chief Justice wrote that when the court had vacated Randall’s judgment, the entire judgment (i.e. “the plea, the verdict or findings, and the adjudication and sentence”) was dismissed. This would mean that Taylor was due an opportunity to enter a new plea. The Chief Justice also argued that under State v. Davis the substitution of one judge for another in sentencing requires the consent of the defendant. Taylor did not consent to the replacement judge.
Although a Special Judge appointed by the Missouri Supreme Court found that Taylor’s lawyer was not ineffective, it is certainly unusual for a defendant who has not been offered a plea bargain to plead guilty. Taylor’s only chance not to be sentenced to death lay with a sober Judge Randall, yet even that was not available to him.
In addition, the prosecutor involved in Taylor’s case, Jackson County Prosecutor Al Riederer, had a practice during his 12 years in office of seeking a sentence of life without parole in dozens of instances when defendants pleaded guilty to murder – except in this case when the defendants were black and the victim was white. There were other heinous murder-rape cases involving multiple victims where the same prosecutor agreed to guilty pleas in exchange for life without parole, but in those cases, either the accused were white or the victims were black.
In light of the many unjust circumstances surrounding Taylor’s guilty plea and the pursuant sentencing, it is unacceptable for Michael Taylor to be executed.
Please write Gov. Matt Blunt requesting that he stop the execution of Michael Taylor!
