Entries tagged with “Leonard Taylor”

Executions

Religion

,

Feb 03, 2026

Restrictions on Spiritual Advisers in Execution Chambers Persist Despite Supreme Court Ruling

When Lance Shockley was exe­cut­ed in Missouri in October 2025, he request­ed the pres­ence of his daugh­ter, an ordained min­is­ter, in the exe­cu­tion cham­ber as his spir­i­tu­al advis­er. The Missouri Department of Corrections (MDOC) denied his request, and Mr. Shockley was exe­cut­ed. His case rep­re­sents one exam­ple of how states have applied the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 rul­ing in *Ramirez v. Collier*, a deci­sion that acknowl­edged the reli­gious rights of death-sentenced…

State & Federal Info

Military

,

Nov 10, 2023

A Veterans Day Review: Uneven Progress Understanding the Role of Military Service in Capital Crimes

In 2015, DPIC’s Battle Scars report brought world­wide atten­tion to the issue of mil­i­tary vet­er­ans on death row. DPIC found approx­i­mate­ly 300 vet­er­ans incar­cer­at­ed under a sen­tence of death, rep­re­sent­ing at least 10% of death row, and many more who had been exe­cut­ed. Since that report, research and under­stand­ing about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), trau­mat­ic brain injury (TBI), sub­stance use dis­or­ders, and men­tal ill­ness among veterans has…

Issues

Upcoming Executions

,

Feb 03, 2023

POSSIBLE INNOCENCE: New Evidence Regarding Missouri Man Facing Execution

Leonard Taylor (pic­tured) is a Missouri death-row pris­on­er who was con­vict­ed in 2008 of a quadru­ple mur­der that occurred in St. Louis in December 2004. His exe­cu­tion is sched­uled for February 7, 2023. Taylor has con­sis­tent­ly main­tained his inno­cence. Although Taylor’s attor­neys have dis­cov­ered new evi­dence to sub­stan­ti­ate his claim, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell announced that he would not ask a judge to hold an evidentiary hearing…