John Albert Taylor (1959–1996) was an American citizen convicted of burglary, carrying a concealed weapon, sexual assault, and murder. His criminal case drew significant attention in the late twentieth century due to the nature of his crimes and his subsequent execution. In June 1989, Taylor's own sister alerted law enforcement after eleven-year-old Charla King was found raped and strangled to death in Washington Terrace, Utah. Investigators subsequently matched Taylor's fingerprints to the crime scene, which was located in an apartment complex where he had been staying at the time. By December 1989, Taylor was convicted, sentenced to death, and placed on death row at the Utah State Prison. While on death row, Taylor maintained his innocence but ultimately decided to halt the appeals process after the Utah Supreme Court rejected his petition for a retrial. He became the second individual in the United States to be executed by firing squad since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976, following the execution of Gary Gilmore. Taylor explicitly stated that he selected the firing squad method to cause embarrassment to the state of Utah. On January 26, 1996, the day Taylor's execution was carried out, legislation was formally introduced in the Utah House of Representatives to eliminate the firing squad as a method of execution.
