Missouri executions

Missouri is set to carry out its second execution of 2023 next week. Despite his 2004 conviction, Leonard Taylor has insisted he is innocent in the quadruple murder. His attorneys are hoping for a stay of execution.

Amber McLaughlin, 49, becomes the first openly transgender woman to be executed in the U.S.

Despite the increasing difficulty of obtaining drugs for lethal injection, states like Missouri keep killing death row inmates. The result: botched executions and increased secrecy.

Barely one month after Kevin Johnson, another St. Louis County defendant is scheduled to be executed.

DNA analysis reveals that many people in prison are not guilty. Could Missouri death-row inmate Marcellus Williams be one of them?

Kevin Johnson is scheduled to be executed by the state of Missouri on Nov. 29. A jury of six white and six Black members deadlocked on whether he was guilty of first-degree murder or a lesser charge. When he went back for a second trial, he ended up with just three Black jurors — and a guilty verdict of first-degree murder.

NPR spoke with 26 people who were involved with more than 200 executions across the country — including in Missouri. Most said their health suffered and they had little support to help them cope with their unusual jobs.

Then-Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens postponed the execution of Marcellus Williams five years ago Monday, citing DNA evidence that raised questions about Williams’ guilt. The panel appointed to review the case has made recommendations to Gov. Mike Parson, but there’s been no action.

The state of Missouri this week executed Ernest Johnson, 61, who was convicted of murdering three people in 1994. His attorneys argued he was ineligible for the death penalty because multiple IQ tests had shown he had the mental capacity of a child.

The death row inmate, who had brain surgery, claims that death by lethal injection would cause severe and painful seizures. The court refused to hear his plea over dissent from the liberal justices.

Missouri executed its first prisoner since 2017 on Tuesday night. Despite the man’s rare medical condition, no complications were reported. Russell…

The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday set an execution date of Oct. 1 for Russell Bucklew, whose challenge to the state’s lethal injection method was…