Civil rights groups seek halt to Missouri execution

ST. LOUIS (AP) – The president of the national NAACP is urging Missouri Gov. Mike Parson to halt the execution of Raheem Taylor, who is scheduled to die by injection Tuesday for the deaths of his girlfriend and her three children.

Separately, nearly three dozen civil rights and religious groups are asking St. Louis County’s prosecutor to reconsider his decision not to ask a judge for a new hearing on Taylor’s claim that he was in California when the killings occurred in 2004.

Authorities say the victims died up to three weeks before they were found, when Taylor was still in the St. Louis area.