No new hearing on condemned Missouri man’s innocence claim

(AP) — The attorney for a man from Missouri facing lethal injection next week says he will ask the state Supreme Court to postpone the execution by three or four months to allow more time to investigate his innocence claim. 

Leonard Taylor faces execution Feb. 7 for the 2004 deaths of his girlfriend and her three children near St. Louis. 

Attorney Kent Gipson had asked St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell to request a hearing on Taylor’s claim that he was out of state when the killings occurred. 

But Bell declined on Monday, saying “the facts are not there to support a credible case of innocence.” 

Gipson said Tuesday that he’ll ask the high court to delay the execution.