When Will Taylor Parker Be Executed? Here's the Latest on the 'Maternal Instinct' Killer
A Netflix documentary has reignited national interest in one of Texas's most disturbing criminal cases — and viewers want to know one thing: when will Taylor Parker be executed?
The short answer is that no execution date has been set. Here's where things stand.
Who Is Taylor Parker
Taylor Parker, now 33, is a Texas death row inmate convicted of capital murder for the October 2020 killing of Reagan Simmons-Hancock, a 21-year-old newlywed from New Boston, Texas, who was 36 weeks pregnant at the time of her death.
Parker had been unable to have children following a hysterectomy in 2015, but had spent nearly a year deceiving her then-boyfriend, Wade Griffin, into believing she was carrying his child. She wore a silicone pregnancy belly, staged a gender reveal party, posed for maternity photos and used fake ultrasound images to maintain the lie. When her due date passed without a birth, Griffin confronted her. Days later, Parker drove to Simmons-Hancock's home, bludgeoned her to death and surgically removed her unborn daughter from the womb in an attempt to pass the baby off as her own. The infant, Braxlynn Sage Hancock, did not survive.
Parker was arrested the same day in Oklahoma and extradited to Texas to face charges.
The Trial and Sentence
Parker was convicted of capital murder in October 2022 after a trial in Bowie County, Texas. The jury sentenced her to death on Nov. 9, 2022. She is currently one of only seven women on Texas death row and the youngest person held there. She is housed at the Patrick L. O'Daniel Unit in Gatesville, Texas, roughly 42 miles west of Waco.
Where the Appeals Stand
Parker's legal options have narrowed significantly in recent months. In November 2025, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld both her conviction and her death sentence, exhausting her direct appeal. In May 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear her case without explanation, leaving the death sentence in place.
Despite those setbacks, no execution date has been scheduled. Under Texas law, a death row inmate's execution date is not set until all post-conviction appeals — including habeas corpus review, which can proceed through both state and federal courts — have been fully exhausted. That process commonly takes years. The Bowie County trial court would ultimately be responsible for setting a date when the time comes.
What Parker Has Said
In a 2025 interview with journalist Lawrence Wright for the New Yorker, Parker reflected on her crimes. "I told myself, 'You didn't do what they said. It's lies,'" she said. "My realization came when I had to face the autopsy photos."
She also told Wright she had come to terms with her situation. "It's the hardest thing to admit, but I do not believe in going home for myself. My place is here," she said. "I stand firm on the belief you do not deserve to have something you took from another."
The Netflix Documentary
Maternal Instinct, directed by Jessica Dimmock and produced by Story Syndicate, began streaming on Netflix on June 12, 2026. The 96-minute documentary traces Parker's deception, the friendship she formed with Simmons-Hancock as her wedding photographer, and the events leading up to and following the murder. Parker's ex-boyfriend Wade Griffin appears throughout the film. Netflix has not confirmed whether Parker was asked to participate.
Reagan Simmons-Hancock was 21 years old, a wife and mother of a toddler daughter, and weeks away from delivering her second child when she was killed.
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