Killer of US schoolgirl executed

A Missouri man was executed early on Wednesday for raping and murdering a 15-year-old schoolgirl, authorities said, hours after the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed a flurry of petitions seeking a stay. Michael Taylor died by lethal injection 25 years after he and an accomplice abducted Ann Harrison from a bus stop near Kansas City, raped her and stabbed her to death. The 47-year-old had pleaded guilty to the rape and murder. But his attorneys launched a string of appeals, including one asserting the drugs used for lethal injection could subject him to a slow and tortuous death, according to Reuters.