A man convicted of killing his girlfriend and her three children has been executed in the US state of Missouri despite his claims he was in another state when the killings occurred.
Raheem Taylor, 58, was the third inmate put to death since November at the state prison in Bonne Terre and became the nation’s fifth execution this year. All were killed by lethal injection.
In a final statement he said Muslims don’t die but “live eternally in the hearts of our family and friends”.
“Death is not your enemy, it is your destiny. Look forward to meeting it. Peace!” he wrote in the statement.
Taylor, who previously went by the first name Leonard, had long argued he was in California when Angela Rowe, her 10-year-old daughter Alexus Conley, six-year-old daughter AcQreya Conley, and five-year-old son Tyrese Conley were killed in 2004.
His supporters included the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), nearly three dozen civil rights and religious groups and the Midwest Innocence Project.
But his claims were rejected time and time again.
Last week, St Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell, a Democrat, declined Taylor’s request for a hearing before a judge, stating the “facts are not there to support a credible case of innocence”.
Speaking after the execution, Ms Rowe’s sister Gerauan said moving on remains difficult more than 18 years after she lost her sister, nieces and nephew.
“I’m at a point in my life right now – I’m OK but I’m not,” she said. “But I know justice was served. It’s kind of hard trying to move forward, but I think I can do it.”
All four shot within a few days of their bodies being found
Taylor and Ms Rowe lived with the children at a home in St Louis.
He boarded a flight to California on 26 November, 2004. Police were sent to the home in Jennings on 3 December after worried relatives said they had not heard from Ms Rowe.
Officers found the bodies of Ms Rowe and her children – all four had been shot.
The initial finding by a medical examiner was that the killings had likely happened within a few days of the discovery of the bodies – when Taylor was still in California.
Relatives and neighbours saw Rowe alive after Taylor left St Louis, attorney claimed
But at Taylor’s trial Medical Examiner Phillip Burch said the killings could have happened two or three weeks before the bodies were discovered.
Taylor’s attorney, Kent Gipson, said several people including relatives of Ms Rowe and a neighbour saw her alive in the days after Taylor left St Louis.
Taylor’s daughter in California, Deja Taylor, claimed in a court filing she and her father called Ms Rowe and one of the children during his visit. The court filing said Ms Taylor’s mother and sister corroborated her story.
Claim of innocence ‘nonsense’ and alibis ‘completely made up’
Bob McCulloch, who was St Louis County’s elected prosecutor at the time of the killings, told the Associated Press Taylor’s claim of innocence was “nonsense” and the alibis provided by his daughter and her relatives were “completely made up.”
He said evidence suggested Ms Rowe and her children were killed on the night of 22 or 23 November, when Taylor was still in St Louis.
Mr McCulloch said DNA from Ms Rowe’s blood was found on Taylor’s glasses when he was arrested and a relative taking him to the airport saw him throw a gun into the sewer, while Taylor’s brother told police he had admitted to the crime.
The authorities believe Taylor shot Ms Rowe during a violent argument and then killed her children because they were witnesses.
