Researching Michael Taylor

Taylor was scheduled to be executed February 1, 2006, but was granted a stay by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, on the grounds that lethal injection in his case could be cruel and unusual punishment. Missouri asked the Supreme Court to vacate the stay, allowing the execution. Justice Samuel Alito, in his first official act on the Supreme Court, voted with the majority (6–3) to refuse Missouri's request. Alito's vote made headlines because he did not vote with Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Chief Justice John Roberts, said to be the conservative wing of the court.

Taylor was subsequently executed on February 26, 2014 after last minute appeals questioning the reliability of Missouri's new, unnamed supplier of the execution drug pentobarbital were turned down, becoming the fourth person to be executed in Missouri in four months.

Taylor is a native New Yorker. He attended The Bronx High School of Science and Yale University. Taylor had a varied career prior to writing for television, including working as a newspaper and magazine reporter, as well as a musician who performed on guitar and sang with a rock band. He began his television work as a freelance writer for the Deep Space Nine, where he wrote one of the franchise's classic episodes, "The Visitor," while living in New York and still pursuing his musical interests. His other DS9 credits include the episodes "Things Past", "Resurrection" and "In the Pale Moonlight".

Taylor moved to Los Angeles to join the staff of Star Trek: Voyager during its final three seasons, writing many other memorable episodes.

Taylor's Voyager credits include:

* "The Fight"* "Dragon's Teeth"* "Blink of an Eye"* "Body and Soul"* "Bride of Chaotica!"* "The Disease"* "Think Tank"* "Someone to Watch Over Me"* "Relativity"* "Warhead"* "Alice"* "One Small Step"* "Collective"* "Fury"* "Shattered"* "Workforce, Part II"* "Once Upon a Time"* "Counterpoint"* "Drive"* "Friendship One"

After Star Trek, he became a writer and producer on the USA Network series The Dead Zone. The USA series The Dead Zone was based on the famous science fiction thriller novel by Stephen King.In 2002, Michael Taylor was nominated for a Nebula Award, which is given by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, for writing the Dead Zone episode entitled "Unreasonable Doubt".

After five seasons on The Dead Zone, Taylor joined the Syfy channel's and Ronald D. Moore's Battlestar Galactica as a co-executive producer and wrote the Battlestar TV movie Razor. When Battlestar ended its four-season run, he became a writer and co-executive producer on its spin-off, Caprica, as well as a writer and executive producer of the FOX pilot/TV movie Virtuality, co-created with Ron Moore.

His Caprica credits include: "Ghost in the Machine", "End of Line" and "False Labor".

Taylor subsequently co-created the Syfy series Defiance, and wrote and produced the Battlestar prequel web series and TV movie Blood & Chrome, before "turning" to historical fiction as a writer and executive producer on the acclaimed AMC series Turn: Washington's Spies. He returned to science fiction as a writer and executive producer on two more AMC series: the gonzo, post-apocalyptic martial arts show, Into the Badlands, and Pantheon, an animated sci-fi series expected to air in 2022.

Taylor's work has been nominated several times for both Hugo and Nebula Awards. He won a Peabody Award as part of the writing staff of Battlestar Galactica, and a webisode series he wrote, Battlestar Galactica: Razor Flashbacks, garnered an Emmy® Award for Best Short Format Live-Action Entertainment Program.

In his spare time, Taylor continues to rock with a cover band of fellow writers, the aptly named "Trainwreck."

Norwood's Club Champion award, which is given to the Norwood footballer judged best and fairest for the season at senior SANFL level, was renamed in his honour as far back as 2018.

National Geographic made a video about the discovery and measuring of Hyperion. The discovery made headlines.

Taylor has discovered 50 coast redwoods over tall, and co-discovered approximately 100 more with Chris Atkins and Stephen Sillett, who is the first holder of the Kenneth L. Fisher Chair in Redwood Forest Ecology at Humboldt State University. Taylor and Sillett have collaborated and measured remarkable previously unknown redwoods. Their discoveries have fueled research and public interest in coast redwoods, which are now a World Heritage Site.

Michael is a main character of the non-fiction book (2007) The Wild Trees. The narrative includes how Taylor began exploring for tall trees, measuring tallest trees, and later networking with Pacific coast forest researchers.

Taylor co-discovered the largest known coast redwood named Lost Monarch in the Grove of Titans, as well as Iluvatar in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park.