Silent killer who raped and murdered 15-year-old takes two deep breaths and closes his eyes as he becomes Missouri's fourth inmate to be executed in four months

Brutal crime: Ann Harrison (left), 15, was awaiting a school bus in Raytown, Missouri, when she was abducted by Taylor (right) and Roderick Nunley, who raped and then stabbed her to death

A man convicted of abducting, raping and killing a Kansas City teenager in 1989 was put to death tonight using a lethal drug after last-minute appeals Tuesday failed to stay Missouri's fourth execution in as many months.
Michael Taylor, 47, of Kansas City, was executed at 12.01am Wednesday.
The U.S. Supreme Court late on Tuesday denied an 11th-hour flurry of petitions filed on Taylor's behalf after the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Taylor's request for a rehearing and Gov. Jay Nixon denied a
clemency request.
In a statement from the Missouri Department of Public Safety, spokesperson Mike O'Connell said that Taylor was executed at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonnee Terre. He was pronounced dead at 12.10am local time.
Taylor offered no final statement. He took two deep breaths before closing his eyes for the last time.
Taylor's attorneys have questioned Missouri's use of an unnamed compounding pharmacy to provide the pentobarbital for his execution.
They have also raised concerns that the state executes men before appeals are complete, and claim Taylor's original trial attorney was so overworked that she encouraged him to plead guilty to lessen her own workload.
After years of using a three-drug execution method, Missouri switched to pentobarbital as a single fatal drug late last year. State officials say there were no outward signs of distress in three recent executions that all relied on a single dose of pentobarbital.
Last week, the Oklahoma-based Apothecary Shoppe agreed that it would not supply the pentobarbital for Taylor's execution.
Attorney General Chris Koster's office announced in a court filing on Febuary 19 that a new provider had been found, but has refused to name the pharmacy, citing the state's execution protocol that allows for the manufacturer to remain anonymous. 
Taylor's attorneys said use of the drug without naming the compounding pharmacy could cause the inmate pain and suffering because no one can check if the operation is legitimate and has not been accused of any violations.
'We have no idea about the track record of this pharmacy,' Taylor's attorney, John Simon, said.
Pete Edlund doesn't want to hear it. Edlund, 69 and retired from the Kansas City Police Department, led the investigation into Ann Harrison's death. Taylor, 47, and Roderick Nunley were convicted of abducting, raping and killing the 15-year-old girl in Kansas City in 1989.Cruel and unusual punishment would be if we killed them the same way they killed Annie Harrison,' Edlund said. 'Get a damn rope, string them up, put them in the gas chamber. Whatever it takes.'
In a phone call from death row just hours before his death, Taylor told the Kansas City Star that he had written a letter to his victim's parents expressing his 'sincerest apology and heartfelt remorse.'
'I hope that they’ll accept it,' Taylor said of the letter.
Taylor was nearly executed in 2006 before a late court-ordered reprieve after revelations about problems with the state's lethal injection practices at that time.
On Tuesday night, the string of terse denials, issued for the high court by Justice Samuel Alito, presumably cleared the way for Taylor's execution to proceed as scheduled.
Ann Harrison was waiting for the school bus on the morning of March 22, 1989, when Nunley and Taylor, then in their early 20s, drove past in a car they had stolen after a night while binging on crack cocaine.
One of the men jumped out of the car and grabbed Ann, forcing her into the vehicle. Both have claimed the other did it.
The men drove to the home of Nunley's mother. Ann was forced into the basement and raped — DNA testing linked Taylor.
Afraid she would be able to identify them, the men used kitchen knives to stab the girl repeatedly, even as Ann begged for her life and offered money if they would let her live. She died about 30 minutes later.
Taylor and Nunley put her in the trunk of the stolen car, abandoned the car in a neighborhood then walked away.
The body was found three days later. Edlund said the crime went unsolved for about six months. A $10,000 reward led to a tip, and Taylor and Nunley were both arrested. Both pleaded guilty and were sentenced to death in 1991.
After their sentences were overturned, they were again sentenced to death in 1994. Nunley is also on death row, but the state has yet to schedule his execution.
Linda Taylor, Michael Taylor's mother, issued a statement with other family members stating Taylor had great remorse for his crime. The family did not want to see Taylor executed and Linda Taylor has said that life in prison should have been be sufficient punishment.