Michael Taylor was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. in Alabama, the last of three U.S. executions carried out on the same day.
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Alabama executed Michael Taylor on Thursday, carrying out a lethal injection at a state prison in the final execution of a day that also included lethal injections in Florida and Indiana.
Taylor, 54, was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. local time after the execution began shortly before 6 p.m. When asked if he had any final words, he replied “no sir.” He appeared to mouth “thank you” toward his attorneys in the witness room as his spiritual adviser prayed with him, then closed his eyes during the injection and did not reopen them.
In 1991, Taylor—then 19—fatally beat Ivan and Lucille Moore, aged 83 and 79, with a metal bar during a robbery at their home in Gadsden, Alabama. Police arrested him with the victims’ Cadillac about an hour away in Birmingham.
Death penalty opponents urged Republican Gov. Kay Ivey to reduce Taylor’s sentence to life in prison, citing his age and immaturity at the time, but she declined. In a statement Thursday night, Ivey called Taylor’s actions “reprehensible,” saying the Moores “kindly opened their home” to him 35 years earlier.
A statement attributed to the victims’ family said it was thankful for the state attorney general’s office for bringing “closure,” while lamenting the 35-year wait for the death sentence to be carried out. The statement said the family had to live with “the waiting, the delays, and the uncertainty.”
The execution followed changes to Alabama’s execution method after a judge declared a nitrogen gas method unconstitutional. Taylor’s attorneys objected to a last-minute switch because he had selected nitrogen gas years earlier, but a judge ruled against him.
The day’s other executions took place in Florida and Indiana earlier than Taylor’s. In Florida, Jesse Guardado was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. after a lethal injection at a state prison in Starke. In Indiana, Jeffrey Weisheit was pronounced dead at 12:45 a.m. at a state prison in Michigan City.
The executions occurred as California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he will commute all 548 death sentences in the state, saying “state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values.”
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