This is an emotional and controversial news story about a teen who murdered a police officer after the officer contributed to his brother’s death, and a teen daughter who grew up without her father but wanted to be present at his execution.
After several appeals for mercy, the state of Missouri carried out the execution of Kevin Johnson, 37, Tuesday evening, November 29. A request had been minutes before the execution to the highest court of the land, the US Supreme Court, to stop or delay his death. 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, when he himself was 19 years old. 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. It then went 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 Johnson clemency, even though demonstrators and advocates for Johnson said that his verdict was racially motivated.
Johnson, who was preparing for his ultimate fate, had requested 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 asking that the daughter be allowed to attend, saying that the state law violates Ramey’s constitutional rights. The request was denied.
Ramey compared the execution to visiting a dying family member in the hospital. She said that if Johnson, whom she called the most important person in her life, was dying in a hospital, no one would stop her from sitting at his side as he took his final breath.
Johnson had been in prison since his daughter was two years old, but the father and daughter built a strong relationship with phone calls, visits, letters, and emails. Johnson met his newborn grandson last month.
Johnson’s lawyers filed several appeals 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 and that due to his age at the time of the crime, the death penalty should have been reconsidered.
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 his violation of probation for an assault on his girlfriend.
When the police officers arrived, Johnson awakened his 12-year-old brother, and the boy ran to his grandmother’s house next door. The boy had a congenital heart defect and had a seizure. According to Johnson at the time, Officer McEntee blocked the boy’s grandmother from entering the house and helping the boy. The child passed away a short while later.
Later that night, Johnson noticed Officer McEntee in the neighborhood. He shot the officer twice, killing him.
The Missouri Supreme Court, the US Supreme Court, and the governor of Missouri did not believe that Johnson should be saved. Demonstrations and vigils were seen in public for the executed man.
Twenty inmates in Missouri are on death row and 16 have been executed in the US this year.
