The state of Missouri carried out the execution of Kevin Johnson, 37, Tuesday evening, November 29. A request was made to the highest court of the land, the US Supreme Court, to stop his execution. The request was denied with the public objection of Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
The 19-year-old young daughter of Johnson, who asked a federal court to let her into the prison to watch her father’s execution, was denied her request. The state’s laws do not allow anyone under 21 to witness an execution and the judge ruled that the law is constitutional.
Kevin Johnson, 37, was executed on November 29 for murdering William McEntee, a Kirkwood Missouri police officer, in 2005. The execution was appealed at the last minute to the Missouri Supreme Court, but the court denied the appeal, allowing the execution to go forward. The Missouri court’s ruling was 5 to 2. In the final minutes of his life, an appeal was made to the US Supreme Court.
“We are incredibly disheartened by the Missouri Supreme Court’s denial of a stay for Mr. Johnson and the court’s complete disregard for the law in this case,” said Johnson’s attorney, Shawn Nolan. “We will immediately appeal to the Supreme Court … and we are confident that the court will stop Mr. Johnson’s execution so that justice can prevail.”
Missouri Governor Mike Parson refused to grant clemency.
Johnson, expecting to be executed, had asked that his 19-year-old daughter, Khorry Ramey, be allowed to watch his final moments, and Ramey agreed to attend.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed with a federal court to allow the daughter to attend, saying that the state law violates Ramey’s constitutional rights. The request was denied.
In a declaration to the court, Ramey compared the execution to visiting a family member in the hospital. She said that if Johnson, whom she termed the most important person in her life, was dying in a hospital, no one would stop her from sitting at his death bed.
Johnson had been in prison since his daughter Ramey was two years old, but the father and daughter built a close bond through phone calls, visits, letters, and emails. Johnson met his newborn grandson last month.
Johnson’s legal team filed appeals for a judge to stop the execution. Although they didn’t claim Johnson was innocent, his lawyers argued that the jury’s decision to seek the death penalty and the guilty verdict was influenced by racism.
Johnson was only 19 at the time of the murder and had a history of mental illness, which the lawyers had hoped would stop the execution from being carried out. In 2005, the Supreme Court set a precedent by banning the death penalty for offenders below 18 at the time of their crimes.
The crime committed by Johnson occurred on July 5, 2005. The murdered police officer, William McEntee, a husband and father of three, and five other police officers were serving a warrant at Johnson’s home for violating probation for an assault on his girlfriend.
When the police officers arrived, Johnson woke his 12-year-old brother, who ran next door to his grandmother’s house. The boy was suffering from a congenital heart defect and had a seizure. According to Johnson’s testimony, Officer McEntee blocked the boy’s grandmother from entering the house and helping the boy. The child died a short while later.
Later in the evening, Johnson noticed Officer McEntee when he returned to the neighborhood. He shot the officer twice, killing him.
Twenty inmates in Missouri are on death row and 16 have been executed in the US this year.