A petition to publicly hang Benjamin Taylor, the West Virginia man accused of brutally sexually assaulting a 10-month-old girl who died this week, was removed from the White House’s website Friday after receiving tens of thousands of signatures. 
 
 The website did not specify a reason beyond stating that the petition violated its terms of participation. It was not immediately clear when the petition was taken down, but it had received at least 50,000 signatures before being removed. 
 
 The petition on the White House’s “We the People” calling for Taylor to be publicly hanged was posted Tuesday by a person identified as “J.R.” 
 
 The petitioner wrote: “Prison is too good for child rapists and their ilk. I would move to say that our ‘justice system’ is even a part of the problem, in that incarceration is hardly justice when it comes to such an awful act … Let us hang these creatures publicly. Let us make examples of them, and allow the American people to attend these hangings so that the accused may be ridiculed.” 
 
 Had the petition received the required 100,000 signatures by Nov. 4, the White House would have had to issue a response, according to the website’s policy. 
 
 The petition was started one day after Taylor, 32, was discovered with his girlfriend’s severely injured baby in the basement of the apartment they shared. 
 
 Emmaleigh Elizabeth Barringer was naked, covered with blood and unconscious when she was found by her mother, according to the baby’s aunt. 
 
 At the time the petition was posted, Emmaleigh had already been pronounced brain dead. She died the following day from her injuries, which were described by family members as “extensive.” 
 
 Taylor was initially charged with one count of first-degree sexual assault, but a murder charge was added after the girl’s death, Jackson County Sheriff Tony Boggs told West Virginia-area television station WSAZ. 
 
 Boggs described the case as one of the worst he’s seen in his career. 
 
 “I have not and hope to never again,” he said. “I don’t know of any normal human that could fathom what would possess somebody to do that. 
 
 West Virginia abolished capital punishment decades ago, though another case spurred one state lawmaker to promise that he would introduce legislation to bring the death penalty back to the state in the next legislative session, West Virginia Metro News reported. 
 
 A vigil for Emmaleigh is scheduled for Friday night in Pasadena, Maryland, according to a GoFundMe page set up by the family to help cover funeral costs. The infant’s funeral will take place on Oct. 17. ||||| This undated photo provided by the West Virginia Regional Jail & Correctional Facility Authority shows Benjamin Taylor of Cottageville, W.V. Taylor is charged with murder in Oct. 5, 2016 death of a 9-month-old... (Associated Press) 
 
 This undated photo provided by the West Virginia Regional Jail & Correctional Facility Authority shows Benjamin Taylor of Cottageville, W.V. Taylor is charged with murder in Oct. 5, 2016 death of a 9-month-old... (Associated Press) 
 
 RIPLEY, W.Va. (AP) — A West Virginia man accused of sexually assaulting a 9-month-old baby is now charged with murder in the child's death. 
 
 Media outlets report 32-year-old Benjamin Taylor of Cottageville was charged with first-degree murder after the girl died of her injuries at a hospital Wednesday. Taylor is the boyfriend of the victim's mother, but isn't the child's father. 
 
 He was initially charged Monday with first-degree sexual assault. 
 
 A criminal complaint shows the baby had extensive bleeding. The complaint says the injuries indicated a violent sexual assault, as well as shaking or striking of the face. 
 
 Taylor told deputies he took the baby to the basement of an apartment while doing laundry. He said he "blacked out" and didn't know how the baby's injuries occurred. 
 
 It's unclear whether Taylor has an attorney. ||||| Please enable Javascript to watch this video 
 
 CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- The former cab driver accused of killing two Virginia college students will admit to their murders in a plea deal Wednesday afternoon, a deal which both the victims' families support. 
 
 Jesse Matthew Jr. is expected to enter a plea agreement in court "to resolve both the Hannah Graham and Morgan Harrington abduction and murder cases," a prosecutor said Monday. There will be conditions to the plea deal that will be entered at 1:30 p.m. in the Albemarle courtroom. 
 
 He is expected to plead guilty to first-degree murder and intent to defile in both cases, sources close to the deal said. He will serve multiple life sentences, not concurrently, and there will be no chance for early release as a condition of the deal. Matthew will not be eligible for parole, and will relinquish any possibility of geriatric release. 
 
 He will no longer face any chance of getting the death penalty, as he will no longer face a July capital murder trial for Graham's murder. However, he will never again pose a threat to public safety, sources close to the deal said. 
 
 When Matthew appears in court Wednesday, he will face the parents of Graham, an 18-year-old University of Virginia student, who went missing in September 2014. Authorities found her remains the next month on abandoned property eight miles from where the second-year college student was last seen. 
 
 He will also face the parents of Harrington, a 20-year-old Virginia Tech student, who went missing in October 2009 after attending a Metallica concert in Charlottesville. Her remains were discovered on a nearby farm in January 2010. It was not until 2015 that a grand jury indicted Matthew on charges of first-degree murder and abduction with the intent to defile in the Harrington case. 
 
 Both families told CBS 6 they supported the plea. They will be entering statements in court today, something which is rare in a plea deal, but which the families requested. 
 
 "This is not a celebratory time of time of fist-pumping joy," Gil Harrington, Morgan's mother said to CBS 6. "Our daughter is still as dead as she was in 2009." 
 
 "We have seen Morgan’s broken bones and cannot comprehend what one human could have so desperately needed to have hurt and murdered our daughter," she said ahead of Matthew's court appearance. 
 
 His admission will come six-and-a-half years after the Harringtons first learned their daughter had been murdered. 
 
 For prosecutors, the plea deal is appropriate said CBS 6 legal analyst Todd Stone. 
 
 "The expense and cost is so much more than money. It is resources and man power in such a small prosecutor's office," he said. "They now will be able to focus on prosecuting things that they have. Perhaps preventing this from happening in the future." 
 
 Last year, a judge sentenced Matthew to three life sentences for the 2005 sexual assault of a 26-year-old woman in Fairfax, Virginia. The DNA in that case tied together all cases. 
 
 A series of Twitter posts Monday on the page of "Help Save the Next Girl," an organization founded by Harrington's parents, expressed gratitude for the plea deal. 
 
 "There are no winners here," mother Gil Harrington told CNN affiliate WVIR. "You know, our daughters are still dead. But then, I corrected myself, that actually the winner is the community, and maybe that's what the abstract of justice means." 
 
 Albemarle County Commonwealth's Attorney Robert Tracci did not have anything to say ahead of the hearing,"in the interest of protecting the integrity of the judicial process." 
 
 CBS 6 News will be inside the courtroom for Wednesday's hearing. Be sure to follow WTVR.com and the WTVR app for updates, and watch a live report on CBS 6 News at Noon. 
 
 Follow report Laura French on Twitter for up-to-the-minute details of this developing story: 
 
 #BREAKING: #JesseMatthew expected to plead guilty to abduction w/intent to defile in both cases @CBS6 — Laura French (@lfrenchnews) March 2, 2016 
 
 Depend on @lfrenchnews, @CBS6 News and https://t.co/I6lH1vOfMQ for complete coverage of this important story. pic.twitter.com/WTxz9QQfDK — WTVR CBS 6 Richmond (@CBS6) March 2, 2016 
 
 Here's @lfrenchnews's live update on the Jesse Matthew plea deal. https://t.co/1OL4t2mIub pic.twitter.com/wiVnfrTsTc — WTVR CBS 6 Richmond (@CBS6) March 2, 2016 
 
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– West Virginia hasn't executed anybody since murderer Elmer Brunner went to "Old Sparky" in 1959, but quite a few people want that to change after the horrific murder of a 9-month-old baby. Benjamin Taylor is accused of raping and killing his girlfriend's daughter, and a petition to have him publicly hanged received more than 50,000 signatures on the White House website before it was removed, KTLA reports. President Obama would have been required to respond if the petition gained more than 100,000 signatures over 30 days. West Virginia abolished the death penalty in 1965. "When it's an open and shut case such as this, let us hang these creatures publicly. Let us make examples of them, and allow the American people to attend these hangings so that the accused may be ridiculed, as they should be," read the petition, which the White House "We the People" website says was pulled for violating the "terms of participation." Taylor, 32, was charged with sexual assault Monday and a first-degree murder charge was added on Friday, the AP reports. He was arrested after Emmaleigh Barringer was found naked and covered and blood in the basement of her mother's home early Monday. She died from her injuries on Wednesday.