FOX 2

Clemency requested for man facing execution in Jennings quadruple murder

JENNINGS, Mo. – At least one person has requested clemency for Leonard Taylor, a man facing execution next month for the shooting deaths of his girlfriend and her three children in St. Louis County nearly two decades ago.

A spokesperson confirms with FOX 2 that the Missouri Governor’s Office has received an application for clemency, though it was not disclosed who filed the request.

Taylor, 45, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Feb. 7, following the deaths of Angela Rowe, her two young daughters and her young son. Police found all four deceased with gunshot wounds in November 2004. A jury convicted Taylor for four counts of murder in 2008.

The Governor’s Office sent the following statement to FOX 2 on the recent clemency request:

“As with all cases, Governor Parson carefully reviews the specific facts and circumstances of each case to determine if clemency is appropriate. Governor Parson will examine Taylor’s application and announce his decision when this review is complete, as has been practice in other capital cases.”

Prosecutors contend that Taylor killed the family, admitted it in a phone call to his brother and fled to California. Taylor’s attorney’s claim that he was in California in November 2004 and that Rowe and her children were still alive before he departed from St. Louis, arguing he couldn’t have committed the murders, per a St. Louis Post-Dispatch report.

Unless clemency is granted, the execution is expected to happen next month at the state prison in Bonne Terre, Missouri. Earlier this year, the Missouri Department of Corrections also carried out the execution of Amber McLaughlin.