News / Human Rights

Missouri executes 25-year death row inmate Roderick Nunley

Wednesday, 02 September 2015 7:47 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 02 September 2015 7:53 AM ]

Roderick Nunley

The US state of Missouri has executed an African-American man who was on death row for 25 years.

Roderick Nunley, 50, convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing a 15-year-old girl in Kansas City in 1989 was put to death by lethal injection on Tuesday.

Investigators say the girl was randomly targeted while waiting in her driveway for the school bus on the morning of March 22, 1989.

Nunley pleaded guilty to the murder of Ann Harrison. He and accomplice Michael Taylor drove by and decided to kidnap and rape the girl, according to court papers.

After assaulting her, they stabbed Harrison multiple times and left her body in the trunk of a car they had stolen.

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster declared in a statement, "Despite openly admitting his guilt to the court, it has taken 25 years to get him to the chamber.”

"Nunley's case offers a textbook example showing why society is so frustrated with a system that has become too cumbersome," he added.

The US Supreme Court, meanwhile, denied several appeals from Nunley’s attorney, including one claiming that the death penalty constituted cruel and unusual punishment.

Taylor, Nunley's co-defendant was convicted of first-degree murder and was executed last year.

Janel Harrison recalled her daughter’s ordeal before the execution. “The total fear she felt when she was bound and unable to defend herself while listening to them discuss how they were going to kill her.”

“The pain she felt when they stabbed her, not once, but at least 10 times. That is the true definition of unusual pain and suffering. The only closure that our family will have is knowing that justice for Ann has been attained and that we are finally through with the judicial system," she continued.

Of the 20 executions nationally in 2015, all but four have been in Missouri and Texas.

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