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Capital Punishment in Missouri from Missouri.Net

On February 16, 1994 Michael Roberts and his friends ran out of money to purchase crack cocaine. Roberts promised his friends that he would get some money. He went to his house and retrieved a ball peen hammer. He then went to the home of a neighbor, Ms. Mary Taylor, whom he considered a friend.

Roberts went to Ms. Taylor’s home around 10:30 p.m. where he and Ms. Taylor watched television for awhile. Around 11:00 p.m. after receiving a telephone call from her nephew, Ms. Taylor told Roberts she wanted to go to sleep and asked him to leave. As the two walked towards the door, Roberts suddenly turned, pushed Ms. Taylor over a table and began hitting her in the head with the hammer as she lay on the floor. After hitting her in the head with the hammer more than fifteen times, Roberts went into the kitchen to find Ms. Taylor’s purse. Finding the purse, Roberts began rummaging through it until he heard Ms. Taylor move in the front room. Roberts returned to the living room where he kicked Ms. Taylor in the head and the side, telling her to be quiet. He then took the telephone cord from the wall and strangled Ms. Taylor, but she continued to breathe. Roberts then went back to the kitchen where he grabbed a steak knife and stabbed Ms. Taylor repeatedly. He tossed the steak knife aside and got a butcher knife at which time he again began stabbing Ms. Taylor.

Roberts, then went back to the kitchen again and filled a large soup pan with water. He then held Ms. Taylor‘s face under water. When her body started to twitch he released her head, took an answering machine and $200 and left. Roberts left the hammer and his baseball cap at the scene. Roberts returned to the scene on two different occasions following the murder The first time was to steal more valuables and the second time was to report the crime to the police. Roberts provided the police with a videotaped confession. Physical evidence and eyewitness testimony also linked Roberts to the crime.

Legal Chronology

1994
02/17 - Michael Roberts murdered Mary Taylor in St. Louis County.
03/24 - Roberts indicted on one county of Murder First Degree, Burglary Second Degree, Stealing a Motor Vehicle and two counts of Armed Criminal Action.

1995
03/20 - Roberts trial begins in the St. Louis County Circuit Court.
03/28 - Roberts convicted of Murder First Degree.
03/29 - The jury returns sentence of death.
05/06 - Roberts sentenced to death on the murder conviction.
06/01 - Roberts appealed to Missouri Supreme Court.
09/29 - Roberts filed a motion for post-conviction relief.

1996
05/15 - The St. Louis Circuit Court denied Roberts motion for post-conviction relief.

1997
06/17 - The Missouri Supreme Court affirmed Roberts' judgement and sentence and affirmed the denial of Roberts' motion for post-conviction relief.

1998
01/12 - The United States Supreme Court declined to review Roberts' state appeal.

1999
01/11 - Roberts filed petition for writ of habeas.

2000
04/12 - The United States Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit Court denied Roberts' application for certificate of appealability.
05/23 - The U. S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit Court issued its mandate.
12/04 - The U. S. Supreme Court declined to review Roberts' habeas petition.

2001
07/31 - The Missouri Supreme Court sets October 3, 2001 as the execution date for Michael Roberts.

National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

Michael Roberts - Scheduled Execution:10/03/01 1:01 am.

Michael Roberts fits the blueprint for many death row inmates: abused, problems in school life, heavy drug use, and finally murder. At the request of his school, Michael visited a psychiatric hospital at the age of seven. The evaluation showed he was “unable to control his behavior, and was frightened and overwhelmed by aggressive, totally uncontrollable impulses. Because of their responsibility in this tragedy, Michael’s parents moved to suppress the information in this report.

At the age of nine he was committed to a psychiatric clinic for half a year. Michael’s father practiced regular and violent sexual abuse with his children. He often assigned Michael to “stand guard” while he abused his daughter. This abuse continued well into Michael’s teenage years, contributing to his lack of interpersonal and communication skills. While counseling was available, the Roberts family was so engaged in a complete denial of their problems that no member was allowed to seek counseling. Michael underwent evalutaions and interviews throughout his life that indicated he needed help, which he never received.

Michael made the predictable leap to drug abuse and violent crime, which is representative of so many death row inmates. His life eventually revolved around crack cocaine and the need to produce money to fund his habit. On February 14, 1994 this culminated in the robbery and murder of Mary Taylor. Michael confessed to the crime on the following day. Presumably the State of Missouri seeks to protect children from abuse. Michael Roberts’ execution represents a failure of the State to protect its children from habitually abusive parents. Please contact Missouri and ask them to give Michael the help he was denied for so long.

ProDeathPenalty.Com

From Michael Roberts’ videotaped confession the jury learned that on February 16, 1994, Roberts and his friends ran out of crack cocaine and money at the same time. He promised his friends that he would remedy the situation, went to his house, obtained a hammer and walked to the home of fifty-six-year old Mary Taylor, eight doors away. Roberts claimed Mary as a friend and believed that her "stuff" had value as a result of his familiarity with it. Roberts rang Mary’s doorbell between 10:30 and 11:00 p.m. She let him in. They watched television together. Mary took a phone call from her nephew. When the call ended, she and Roberts talked until Mary said she wanted to go to sleep and asked Roberts to leave.

The two walked toward the front door. Roberts suddenly turned and pushed Mary over a table and began hitting her in the head with the hammer as she lay defenseless on the floor. Mary pleaded with Roberts to stop. After hitting her in the head with the hammer more than fifteen times, he stopped the beating and went into the kitchen where he knew she kept her purse. Finding the purse, Roberts began rummaging through it until he heard Mary move in the front room. Roberts returned to the living room and kicked Mary in the head and side, telling her to stay still. Apparently not convinced that she would obey, he ripped the telephone cord from the wall, wrapped it around her neck , and pulled it as tight as he could. She continued to breathe. He ran to the kitchen, grabbed a steak knife and stabbed her repeatedly until the knife blade bent in the process. He tossed the knife aside, retrieved a butcher knife from the kitchen and began stabbing Mary again. When that weapon did not seem "like it was penetrating her clothes," he went to the kitchen again, filled a large soup pan with water, took it to Mary and held her face under the water. Noticing that brain matter has oozed on to his hands, Roberts felt queasy, but decided to continue. He repositioned his hand and forced her head in the water. When her body started to twitch, he "freaked out," released her head, took an answering machine and $200 and left, leaving the hammer and his Cleveland Indians baseball cap behind. He returned to Mary’s house twice -- the first time to steal more valuables and her car and the second time to pretend to find her body and report the crime to the police.

New Hampshire Coalition Against the Death Penalty

"Convicted Killer Executed in Missouri," by Jim Suhr. (Associated Press)

POTOSI, Mo. (AP) - A man convicted of beating a grandmother to death with a hammer before stealing her money to buy crack cocaine was executed early Wednesday. Michael Roberts, 27, died at 12:05 a.m. at the Potosi Correctional Center, four minutes after the first of three lethal doses was administered.

The execution came a day after he told The Associated Press he loathed any prospect of spending life behind bars, saying ``I want to be executed. I'm ready to go.'' His fate was sealed late Tuesday when the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) and Gov. Bob Holden refused to halt the execution, Missouri's sixth this year.

In interviews this week, Roberts refused to discuss the 1994 killing of Mary Taylor, aside from calling it a ``spontaneous'' byproduct of a two-week bender on everything from cocaine to PCP and marijuana. According to his confession and court records, Roberts went to Taylor's home the night of Feb. 16, 1994, after he and friends ran out of drugs and money. When Taylor asked Roberts to leave so she could sleep, Roberts hit her 19 times with a hammer, kicked her in the head and side, tightened a telephone cord around her neck, stabbed her with steak and butcher knives and immersed her face in a pot of water. Roberts stole more than $200 he and his friends spent on more crack cocaine. He returned to Taylor's house to steal more valuables and her car, then later to report finding the body. At trial, Roberts' lawyers asked for his life to be spared, citing his troubled, poor upbringing they said included mental, physical and sexual abuse by his father and years of untreated mental illness.

Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977, Missouri has executed the third-most inmates at 52, trailing only Texas with 252 and Virginia with 82.

Mid-Missouri Fellowship of Reconciliation

Missouri Plans to Execute Michael Roberts Oct. 2: Join Protest Efforts, Affirming Life!

Michael Roberts, sentenced to death for a thoroughly contemptible crime—the brutal 1994 murder of his neighbor and friend, Mary Taylor, is set for execution by Missouri officials, an equally reprehensible violent act of much greater premeditation. He is scheduled to be lethally poisoned late Tuesday night, officially in the opening moments of October 3rd. He would be the 52nd human being executed by Missouri officials since the state resumed the barbaric practice in 1989. One would like to hope no officials revel in such macabre standings, but Roberts’ killing would place Missouri in sole possession of the shameful rank of third-most-killing U.S. state, passing up Florida.

The initial crime. Roberts told authorities in a videotaped confession that after he and friends ran out of crack cocaine and money, he went to Taylor’s house, sat and watched TV with her. After she asked him to leave to allow her to rest, he said he began to leave then struck her head several times with a hammer, strangled, stabbed her, then finally held her head under water in a large pot until she drowned. The Mid-Missouri FOR condemns the horrific murder committed by Roberts and extends condolences to the family of Mary Taylor.

Horrific and abusive childhood resulting in untreated mental illness. While it certainly doesn’t pardon Roberts’ actions, his bizarre and impulsive behavior has root causes worth noting. He experienced an extremely traumatic childhood. For years he was sexually and physically abused by his father, beginning at seven years of age. The father also forced him to frequently "stand guard," preventing detection by his wife, while he raped Roberts’ older half sister.

Later, he did the same to his granddaughter—the off-spring of his incestuous abuse of his daughter. Not surprisingly, Michael later replicated the deviant cycle. He had sexual contact with his younger brother, his older half-sister, and his father’s grandchild when she was just five years old. When their father discovered his son’s sexual abuse of his grandchild, he severely beat both she and Michael, apparently out of a warped sense of ethics and jealousy. Mental health professionals conducted the first psychological testing of Roberts when he was seven years old (and several other times over the years, as ordered by various schools). They found he was unable to control his behavior, became frightened and overwhelmed by aggressive, totally uncontrollable impulses. At least one later psychiatric hospital stay resulted in a recommendation of medication to help control his behavior.

However, he did not receive this medication or other needed mental-health care until after the offense for which he was ultimately sentenced to death. He grew up in such a radically dysfunctional home that his father—in an effort to hide his vile behavior--- prevented mental-health professionals from intervening to protect and treat his son. Neurological testing performed on him just prior to the murder trial showed Roberts suffered from a mental disease or defect (left untreated for years) which, his attorneys contend, negated his ability to deliberate, something required for a first-degree murder conviction. A neurologist/psychiatrist, performed an electroencephalogram (EEG) on Roberts and found "brain abnormalities" in the frontal lobe similar to those present in a patient with epilepsy. The doctor testified these abnormalities occurred in the area of the brain "having to do with emotional control," including the part "associated with impulsive behavior, (inhibition), mood swings, loss of judgment, reasoning, insight." He also noted that it is impossible for a patient to fake an EEG test result.

Prosecutors however, sufficiently cast doubt on the test’s accuracy by erroneously suggesting the machine was defective because a freak car accident --while the workers transported it across state to St. Louis-- had damaged an unrelated component of the machine. Unfortunately, health professionals neglected to utilize another available EEG machine in the St. Louis hospital, thus failing to eliminate the later room for doubt to be raised. Roberts’ current attorneys note his case is one of "’institutional failure’ where the tools society has established for identifying and treating an at-risk child or youth, to help adjust to the demands of social life, or to separate (him) from general society in order to protect the person or society or both -- have not worked." In a summary of his case, they suggest if he "had received the help society holds itself out to provide, the act of violence for which a prosecutor (sought) the death penalty would not have occurred."

He has a 20-year history of hospital commitments beginning in the early elementary-school years, yet full assistance was stunted (especially during those earlier, more formative years, when it could have been most helpful) due to his father’s perverted interests. In common with thousands of other underserved mentally-ill Americans who engage in self-medication, Roberts as an adult later turned to crack cocaine, a drug only further compounding his impulsive behavior