A Missouri Catholic Conference official welcomed a last-minute Supreme Court action to avert the execution of Michael Taylor, who was being held in the state prison in Bonne Terre.

In a 6-3 ruling Feb. 1, the court rejected the state of Missouri's request to allow a midnight execution. The state had asked the court to lift the stay from an appeals court and allow the execution to proceed.

The high court ruling also marked the first case to come before new Justice Samuel Alito Jr. Alito, who joined the majority, was confirmed by the Senate and sworn in just the day before.

Taylor and his lawyers have argued that Missouri's method of execution --- by lethal injection --- is cruel and unusual punishment.

Rita Linhardt, death penalty liaison for the Missouri conference, said Feb. 6 that, while the Catholic conference opposes all executions, the "roller-coaster" ride Taylor and his family went through over an execution that was on and off several times in the course of a few days illustrates that reaching the time of an execution is in itself cruel and unusual punishment.

At one point, Taylor was about half an hour from being executed, Linhardt said, before it became apparent that the state's request to reverse the stay would not be granted.

Linhardt told Catholic News Service she is hopeful that publicity about several recent stays of execution will encourage more public dialogue about problems with the way she said capital punishment is carried out in the United States.

Taylor was convicted of killing 15-year-old Ann Harrison in 1989. She had been waiting for a school bus when Taylor and an accomplice kidnapped her. Taylor said he was under the influence of crack cocaine.

His was the third imminent execution stopped by the Supreme Court in recent weeks. Two Florida executions were stayed pending the court's review of one defendant's legal challenges of the appeals procedure and the constitutionality of lethal injection there. In a second order issued the same day as Taylor's, however, the court said a Texas execution could proceed.

---CNS