By AP / KWMU
Kansas City, MO – U.S. District Judge Fernando Gaitan, Jr. was assigned to the death penalty case of Michael Taylor on orders of a three-judge appeals panel in St. Louis.
The appeals court instructed Gaitan to hold a hearing immediately and issue a decision by Wednesday.
Michael Taylor was scheduled to die by lethal injection this week in the
killing of a Kansas City teenager.
For now, a stay of his execution is in place until 11:59 p.m. Friday.
Taylor pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, forcible rape, armed criminal action and kidnapping for the March 1989 killing of 15-year-old Ann Harrison.