Pope Francis has joined the chorus of people calling on Missouri Gov. Mike Parson to grant clemency to a death row inmate who is set to be executed for killing 3 people during a 1994 convenience store robbery.
In a letter last week, a representative for Pope Francis wrote that the pope “wishes to place before you the simple fact of Mr. Johnson’s humanity & the sacredness of all human life,” referring to Ernest Johnson, who is scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the state prison in Bonne Terre.
Parson, a Republican, has been considering whether to reduce the 61-year-old Johnson’s sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Johnson’s attorney, Jeremy Weis, has said executing him would violate the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits executing intellectually disabled people. He said multiple IQ tests and other exams have shown that Johnson has the intellectual capacity of a child. He also was born with fetal alcohol syndrome and in 2008, he lost about 20% of his brain tissue to the removal of a benign tumor.
Racial justice activists & two Missouri members of congress — Democratic U.S. Reps. Cori Bush of St. Louis & Emmanuel Cleaver of Kansas City — have also called on Parson to show Johnson mercy.
The Missouri Supreme Court in August refused to halt the execution & on Friday declined to take the case up again.
Johnson admitted to killing 3 workers at a Casey’s General Store in Columbia on Feb. 12, 1994 — manager Mary Bratcher, 46, & employees Mabel Scruggs, 57, & Fred Jones, 58. The victims were shot and attacked with a claw hammer. Bratcher also was stabbed in the hand with a screwdriver.
Johnson previously asked that his execution be carried out by firing squad, but Missouri doesn’t allow that method of execution. His lawyers argued that Missouri’s lethal injection drug, pentobarbital, could trigger seizures due to the lost brain tissue.
Source: AP
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