A Missouri inmate convicted of ambushing and killing a St. Louis space police officer he blamed for the loss of life of his youthful brother was executed Tuesday, officers stated.
Kevin Johnson, 37, was put to loss of life by deadly injection on the state jail in Bonne Terre and died at 7:40 p.m., in response to Karen Pojmann, spokesperson for the Missouri Division of Corrections. Johnson had admitted to capturing and killing Kirkwood police Sgt. William McEntee in 2005. Johnson was 19 on the time.
“We hope that it will carry some closure to Sgt. McEntee’s family members, who proceed to anguish with out him,” Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, stated in a press release learn by the state’s corrections commissioner.
A court-appointed particular prosecutor had sought to vacate his loss of life sentence. Edward Keenan argued in an enchantment to the Missouri Supreme Courtroom that Johnson’s trial was “contaminated” with racist prosecution methods and that racial discrimination performed a component in his receiving the loss of life penalty.
The U.S. Supreme Courtroom denied a request for a keep of execution Tuesday. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson would have granted it, courtroom data present.
The choice adopted a ruling late Monday from Missouri’s highest courtroom denying a keep of execution. Parson additionally introduced Monday that he wouldn’t grant clemency.
“The violent homicide of any citizen, not to mention a Missouri regulation enforcement officer, ought to be met solely with the fullest punishment state regulation permits,” Parson, a Republican and a former county sheriff, stated in a press release. “By Mr. Johnson’s personal heinous actions, he stole the lifetime of Sergeant McEntee and left a household grieving, a spouse widowed, and youngsters fatherless. Clemency won’t be granted.”
On July 5, 2005, police had been trying to find Johnson, who was on probation for assaulting his girlfriend. Police believed he had violated probation. McEntee was among the many officers despatched to Johnson’s house.
Johnson’s 12-year-old brother, who had a congenital coronary heart defect, ran subsequent door to his grandmother’s home, the place he suffered a seizure. He died on the hospital. Johnson testified at trial that McEntee stored his mom from getting into the home to assist his brother. In accordance with Johnson, that very same night he encountered McEntee when he returned to his neighborhood for an unrelated name a couple of fireworks disturbance. Johnson shot McEntee a number of occasions and fled, in response to prosecutors. He turned himself in three days later.
Keenan, the particular prosecutor, advised the state Supreme Courtroom that former St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch’s workplace dealt with 5 circumstances during which defendants had been charged with killing cops throughout his tenure. McCulloch sought the loss of life penalty in opposition to all 4 Black defendants, however didn’t search loss of life within the one case the place the defendant was white, the submitting stated.
“The trial prosecuting lawyer invited solely the white defendant to submit mitigating circumstances for consideration earlier than the prosecutor determined whether or not to hunt the loss of life penalty and, thereafter, the prosecutor didn’t search the loss of life penalty in opposition to the white defendant,” Keenan stated, in response to a separate courtroom submitting. “No related invites to submit mitigating proof had been prolonged to any of the 4 black defendants.”
The movement for a keep states: “Following an exhaustive overview of the information of the 5 circumstances, and a complete seek for inside requirements, tips, and contemporaneous memoranda reflecting the selections, there’s merely no” discernible “official case traits that may plausibly clarify the disparate remedy.”
Keenan additionally stated in a submitting that in statements McCulloch made to different prosecutors, he confirmed “a specific animosity in the direction of younger Black males like Mr. Johnson, viewing them as a inhabitants that ‘we needed to take care of,’ and portraying them as stereotypical criminals.”
McCulloch couldn’t instantly be reached for remark.
Johnson’s daughter, Khorry Ramey, 19, had sought to witness the execution, however a state regulation prohibits anybody youthful than 21 from observing the method. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit final week asking a federal courtroom to permit her to attend her father’s deliberate execution however a choose dominated Friday {that a} state regulation barring her from being current due to her age was constitutional.
Phil Helsel contributed.
