IN LOVING MEMORY OF CHARLA KING (JOHN ALBERT TAYLOR EXECUTED BY FIRING SQUAD IN UTAH ON 26 JANUARY 1996)

            11-year-old Charla King was murdered by John Albert Taylor on 23 June 1989. Taylor was executed by the firing squadin Utah on 26 January 1996.

QUOTE 1: Elliott King, Charla King's uncle, was the only member of the victim's family to witness the execution.

"I was glad I got to see it," King said. "I thought he died very, very quickly."  

QUOTE 2: King said he didn't feel any sympathy for Taylor.

"I think that he wasn't willing to make any restitution towards Charla (by admitting guilt)," he said. "I feel great. I feel it's good that he's gone. . . . Sherron (Charla's mother) won't have to keep reliving this crime."

QUOTE 3: To Sherron King, it's more like dancing with the devil.

"How can they justify what they're doing?" asks King, whose daughter's killer just had his case taken on by Yengich for free. "I think they've sold their souls." [LAWYERS WHO DEFEND UTAH `KILLERS' SAY RESPECT FOR LAW MOTIVATES THEM By Mike Carter, Associated Press writer Published: Sunday, May 17, 1992 12:00 a.m. MDT]

QUOTE 4: None of this matters much to Sherron King, who can't understand why anyone would come to the aid of the man convicted of killing her daughter.

"I'm really upset about it," she said. "What if it was their child? My baby had just as much a right to live as John Albert Taylor. I believe these kind of lawyers, when one of their clients gets out and kills again, the blood's on their hands too," King said. [LAWYERS WHO DEFEND UTAH `KILLERS' SAY RESPECT FOR LAW MOTIVATES THEM By Mike Carter, Associated Press writer Published: Sunday, May 17, 1992 12:00 a.m. MDT]

AUTHOR: Family members of Charla King - She was murdered by John Albert Taylor on 23 June 1989. John Albert Taylor was executed by firing squad in Utah on 26 January 1996. John Albert Taylor (June 6, 1959 – January 26, 1996) was an American who was convicted of burglary and carrying a concealed weapon in the state of Florida, and sexual assault and murder in the state of Utah. Taylor's own sister tipped off police in June 1989 after 11-year-old Charla King was found raped and strangled to death in Washington Terrace, Utah. His fingerprints were found at the crime scene, which was located in an apartment complex where he had been staying. In December 1989, Taylor was sentenced to death and placed on death row at Utah State Prison. Taylor gave up appealing his sentence after his request for retrial was rejected by the Utah Supreme Court. He became the second person to be executed by firing squad in the United States (after Gary Gilmore) since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Taylor said he chose this method of execution to embarrass the state of Utah. On January 26, 1996, the day of Taylor's execution, legislation was introduced in the Utah House of Representatives to eliminate the firing squad. In 2004, the state of Utah withdrew the firing squad as a method of execution, leaving lethal injection as the only remaining option.