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- ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup: When nationalism triumphed sportsmanship Gulf News
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Tag Archives: execution
2 weeks before his 9th scheduled execution, Richard Glossip hopes his fate ‘can never happen to anybody else again’ – CNN
- 2 weeks before his 9th scheduled execution, Richard Glossip hopes his fate ‘can never happen to anybody else again’ CNN
- Faith leaders, state representatives plead Gov. Kevin Stitt to grant clemency for Richard Glossip KOCO 5 News
- Lawmakers, faith leaders call for stop to Richard Glossip’s planned execution KOKH FOX25
- Opinion: Richard Glossip should be granted a stay of execution to allow U.S. Supreme Court time to follow the law Tulsa World
- Moral ground to stand on in support of death penalty quickly shrinking Oklahoman.com
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Goshen California shooting: A teenage mother and her 10-month-old baby were gunned down while running from a ‘cartel-style execution’ in central California that left 6 dead, police say
CNN
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A young mother was clutching her 10-month-old son and running for safety when they were both gunned down during a horrific attack that left six dead in a small central California community, the sheriff said.
Forensic evidence shows a shooter stood over 16-year-old Alissa Parraz and her son Nycholas and shot both of them in the head, Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux said during a news conference Tuesday.
“I know for a fact that this young lady was running for her life,” Boudreaux said.
The teen was fleeing a home where at least two suspects had opened fire in what the sheriff described as a “cartel-like execution.”
The four other victims in Monday’s attack were identified as Marcos Parraz, 19; Eladio Parraz, 52; Alissa’s grandmother, Rosa Parraz, 72; and Jennifer Analla, 49, a close friend of a family member who survived the shooting.
The victims were targeted just before 3:40 a.m. at home in Goshen, California, a small farming community about 30 miles southeast of Fresno, the sheriff said.
“These people were clearly shot in the head, and they were also shot in places that the shooter would know that quick death would occur,” Boudreaux said Tuesday.
The home was known to law enforcement for illegal activity, Boudreaux said.
“But let me make this very clear: Not all these people in this home are gang members. And not all these people in this home are drug dealers. The 16-year-old female is an innocent victim. The grandmother inside appears to be an innocent victim. And definitely this 10-month-old child is an innocent victim,” Boudreaux added.
Three people survived the shooting by hiding, and they have been speaking to law enforcement, Boudreaux said.
The killings have shocked the Goshen community, the sheriff said, but he assured residents, “This was not a random act of violence. This was a very specific targeted act of violence. So, I don’t want the community to be scared or worried.”
The shooting is one of 32 mass shootings in the US so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The organization and CNN define a mass shooting as one in which four or more people are shot, excluding the shooter. As of Tuesday, 17 children age 11 and younger died by gunshots so far this year while 24 suffered injuries, according to the archive.
Authorities in California are searching for at least two suspects and have offered a $10,000 reward for information that could lead to their arrest.
Boudreaux asked local businesses and homes to share any surveillance footage their cameras may have caught between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. Monday.
Investigators have already collected hundreds of pieces of evidence from the crime scene, Boudreaux said during Tuesday’s news conference, adding that detectives are working around the clock on forensics.
The three people who survived the shooting are relaying key details to authorities, he said.
One survivor described hearing shots ring out in the home as he lied flat inside a room, pushing his feet against the door to keep it closed, Boudreaux said. He heard at least one of the shooters rattling the doorknob before they walked away.
“He was in such a state of fear that all he could do was hold the door, hoping that he was not the next victim,” Boudreaux said.
The two other survivors hid in a nearby trailer, where one of the victims was shot in the threshold of the trailer door, Boudreaux added.
“Fortunately, the two suspects in this case never entered that trailer. … So we have three surviving victims, who are providing a great deal of information,” Boudreaux said.
As authorities are gathering evidence they aren’t able to release everything they know because the suspects may be watching, the sheriff said.
“We will be slow, methodical, accurate, precise … we will make sure that when we make these arrests that this investigation for the victims – these people will be held to justice,” Boudreaux added.
Roughly two weeks before the shooting, deputies with the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office found shell casings outside the home on January 3 when they were attempting to conduct a parole compliance check, the office said in a news release emailed to CNN.
Compliance checks are done by law enforcement on people who are on felony parole to ensure they’re following the law, Boudreaux explained.
At the time, deputies asked to go inside the home but people at the house refused. Deputies returned with a warrant and found marijuana, methamphetamine, guns and body armor, according to the news release.
Eladio Parraz, one of the shooting victims, was arrested for being a felon in possession of ammunition, firearms and controlled substance, the sheriff’s office said. He was released on bail four days later, the release said.
Oklahoma death row inmate’s last words before execution: ‘My conscience is clear’
Scott James Eizember, a 62-year-old man who murdered an elderly couple 19 years ago, was executed by lethal injection in Oklahoma on Thursday.
“I’m at peace,” Eizember said with an intravenous line in his arm, according to the Associated Press. “My conscience is clear, completely. I love my children.”
Eizember received his last meal at 5:10 p.m. on Wednesday evening. The lethal drugs started flowing at 10:01 a.m. on Thursday and he was declared dead at 10:15.
This Feb. 2, 2018, photo provided by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections shows Scott Eizember, who was executed on Thursday.
(Oklahoma Department of Corrections via AP, File)
As the execution began, Eizember could be seen talking to his spiritual adviser, Rev. Jeffrey Hood, who the Oklahoma Department of Corrections initially barred from the death chamber due to his history of anti-death penalty activism and an arrest, but was allowed in after the victims’ family requested it.
At one point, Eizember lifted his head and mouthed, “I love you,” toward his daughter and attorneys.
The Rev. Jeffrey Hood, of Arkansas, speaks to the media before protestors deliver petitions against the death penalty to the office of Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023, in Oklahoma City.
(AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
He was convicted of murdering an elderly couple – 76-year-old AJ Cantrell and 70-year-old Patsy Cantrell – on Oct. 18, 2003.
Eizember broke into their home to surveil his ex-girlfriend, Kathryn Smith, who lived across the street. When the Cantrells came home, Eizember shot and killed Patsy then bludgeoned AJ to death with the gun, prosecutors said at trial.
OKLAHOMA JURY RECOMMENDS DEATH SENTENCE FOR CONVICTED COP KILLER
After killing the Cantrells, he broke into his ex-girlfriend’s home and attacked both her son and mother before fleeing the scene in a stolen vehicle.
Eizember was on the run for months until he was shot by a man who he attempted to hold hostage in Texas.
Johnny Melton, the nephew of slain couple A.J. And Patsy Cantrell, delivers a statement on behalf of the Cantrell family on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2023, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Okla., after witnessing the execution of Scott Eizember.
(AP Photo/Sean Murphy)
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Johnny Melton, the couple’s nephew, said that the past two decades have been “absolutely excruciating.”
“There is no closure today, but a page has been turned and a fresh chapter in our lives has begun. After living this nightmare, I must say that 20 years is too long for justice to be served,” Melton said after the execution.
“We absolutely want to get it right and we absolutely want to ensure that everyone’s rights are protected, but the process is much too slow.”
Eizember’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
Amber McLaughlin: Missouri carries out first known execution of an openly transgender person for 2003 murder
CNN
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Missouri carried out the first known US execution of an openly transgender person Tuesday when Amber McLaughlin, who was convicted of a 2003 murder and unsuccessfully sought clemency from the governor, was put to death by lethal injection.
“McLaughlin was pronounced dead at 6:51 p.m.,” the Missouri Department of Corrections said in a written statement.
“I am sorry for what I did,” wrote McLaughlin in her final statement, which was released by the department of corrections. “I am a loving & caring person.”
McLaughlin’s execution – the first in the US this year – is unusual: Executions of women in the United States are already rare. Prior to McLaughlin’s execution, just 17 had been put to death since 1976, when the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty after a brief suspension, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The non-profit organization confirmed McLaughlin is the first openly transgender person to be executed in the United States.
McLaughlin, 49, and her attorneys had petitioned Republican Gov. Mike Parson for clemency, asking him to commute her death sentence. Aside from the fact a jury could not agree on the death penalty, they say, McLaughlin has shown genuine remorse and has struggled with an intellectual disability, mental health issues and a history of childhood trauma.
But in a statement Tuesday, Parson’s office announced the execution would move forward as planned. The family and loved ones of her victim, Beverly Guenther, “deserve peace,” the statement said.
“The State of Missouri will carry out McLaughlin’s sentence according to the Court’s order,” Parson said, “and deliver justice.”
McLaughlin – listed in court documents as Scott McLaughlin – had not initiated a legal name change or transition and as a death-sentenced person, was kept at Potosi Correctional Center near St. Louis, which housed male inmates, McLaughlin’s federal public defender Larry Komp and the governor’s office have said.
McLaughlin was sentenced to death for Guenther’s November 2003 murder, according to court records.
The two were previously in a relationship, but they had separated by the time of the killing and Guenther had received an order of protection against McLaughlin after she was arrested for burglarizing Guenther’s home.
Several weeks later, while the order was in effect, McLaughlin waited for Guenther outside the victim’s workplace, court records say. McLaughlin repeatedly stabbed and raped Guenther, prosecutors argued at trial, pointing in part to blood spatters in the parking lot and in Guenther’s truck.
A jury convicted McLaughlin of first-degree murder, forcible rape and armed criminal action, court records show.
But when it came to a sentence, the jury was deadlocked.
Most US states with the death penalty require a jury to unanimously vote to recommend or impose the death penalty, but Missouri does not. According to state law, in cases where a jury is unable to agree on the death penalty, the judge decides between life imprisonment without parole or death. McLaughlin’s trial judge imposed the death penalty.
If Parson were to grant clemency, McLaughlin’s attorneys argued, he would not have subverted the will of the jury, since the jury could not agree on a capital sentence.
That, however, was just one of several grounds on which McLaughlin’s attorneys said Parson should grant her clemency, according to the petition submitted to the governor.
In addition to the issue of her deadlocked jury, McLaughlin’s attorneys pointed to her struggles with mental health, as well as a history of childhood trauma. McLaughlin has been “consistently diagnosed with borderline intellectual disability,” and “universally diagnosed with brain damage as well as fetal alcohol syndrome,” the petition said.
McLaughlin was “abandoned” by her mother and placed into the foster care system, and in one placement, had “feces thrust into her face,” according to the petition.
She later suffered more abuse and trauma, including being tased by her adoptive father, the petition said, and battled depression that led to “multiple suicide attempts.”
At trial, McLaughlin’s jury did not hear expert testimony about her mental state at the time of Guenther’s murder, the petition said. That testimony, her attorneys said, could have tipped the scales toward a life sentence by supporting the mitigating factors cited by the defense and rebutting the prosecution’s claim McLaughlin acted with depravity of mind – that her actions were particularly brutal or “wantonly vile” – the only aggravating factor the jury found.
A federal judge in 2016 vacated McLaughlin’s death sentence due to ineffective counsel, court records show, citing her trial attorneys’ failure to present that expert testimony. That ruling, however, was later overturned by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
McLaughlin’s execution “would highlight all the flaws of the justice system and would be a great injustice on a number of levels,” Komp, her attorney, told CNN previously.
“It would continue the systemic failures that existed throughout Amber’s life where no interventions occurred to stop and intercede to protect her as a child and teen,” Komp said. “All that could go wrong did go wrong for her.”
Missouri carries out first known execution of an openly transgender person for 2003 murder
CNN
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Missouri carried out the first known US execution of an openly transgender person Tuesday when Amber McLaughlin, who was convicted of a 2003 murder and unsuccessfully sought clemency from the governor, was put to death by lethal injection.
“McLaughlin was pronounced dead at 6:51 p.m.,” the Missouri Department of Corrections said in a written statement. A spokesperson did not say if McLaughlin had a final statement.
McLaughlin’s execution – the first in the US this year – is unusual: Executions of women in the United States are already rare. Prior to McLaughlin’s execution, just 17 had been put to death since 1976, when the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty after a brief suspension, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The non-profit organization confirmed McLaughlin is the first openly transgender person to be executed in the United States.
McLaughlin, 49, and her attorneys had petitioned Republican Gov. Mike Parson for clemency, asking him to commute her death sentence. Aside from the fact a jury could not agree on the death penalty, they say, McLaughlin has shown genuine remorse and has struggled with an intellectual disability, mental health issues and a history of childhood trauma.
But in a statement Tuesday, Parson’s office announced the execution would move forward as planned. The family and loved ones of her victim, Beverly Guenther, “deserve peace,” the statement said.
“The State of Missouri will carry out McLaughlin’s sentence according to the Court’s order,” Parson said, “and deliver justice.”
McLaughlin – listed in court documents as Scott McLaughlin – had not initiated a legal name change or transition and as a death-sentenced person, was kept at Potosi Correctional Center near St. Louis, which housed male inmates, McLaughlin’s federal public defender Larry Komp and the governor’s office have said.
McLaughlin was sentenced to death for Guenther’s November 2003 murder, according to court records.
The two were previously in a relationship, but they had separated by the time of the killing and Guenther had received an order of protection against McLaughlin after she was arrested for burglarizing Guenther’s home.
Several weeks later, while the order was in effect, McLaughlin waited for Guenther outside the victim’s workplace, court records say. McLaughlin repeatedly stabbed and raped Guenther, prosecutors argued at trial, pointing in part to blood spatters in the parking lot and in Guenther’s truck.
A jury convicted McLaughlin of first-degree murder, forcible rape and armed criminal action, court records show.
But when it came to a sentence, the jury was deadlocked.
Most US states with the death penalty require a jury to unanimously vote to recommend or impose the death penalty, but Missouri does not. According to state law, in cases where a jury is unable to agree on the death penalty, the judge decides between life imprisonment without parole or death. McLaughlin’s trial judge imposed the death penalty.
If Parson were to grant clemency, McLaughlin’s attorneys argued, he would not have subverted the will of the jury, since the jury could not agree on a capital sentence.
That, however, was just one of several grounds on which McLaughlin’s attorneys said Parson should grant her clemency, according to the petition submitted to the governor.
In addition to the issue of her deadlocked jury, McLaughlin’s attorneys pointed to her struggles with mental health, as well as a history of childhood trauma. McLaughlin has been “consistently diagnosed with borderline intellectual disability,” and “universally diagnosed with brain damage as well as fetal alcohol syndrome,” the petition said.
McLaughlin was “abandoned” by her mother and placed into the foster care system, and in one placement, had “feces thrust into her face,” according to the petition.
She later suffered more abuse and trauma, including being tased by her adoptive father, the petition said, and battled depression that led to “multiple suicide attempts.”
At trial, McLaughlin’s jury did not hear expert testimony about her mental state at the time of Guenther’s murder, the petition said. That testimony, her attorneys said, could have tipped the scales toward a life sentence by supporting the mitigating factors cited by the defense and rebutting the prosecution’s claim McLaughlin acted with depravity of mind – that her actions were particularly brutal or “wantonly vile” – the only aggravating factor the jury found.
A federal judge in 2016 vacated McLaughlin’s death sentence due to ineffective counsel, court records show, citing her trial attorneys’ failure to present that expert testimony. That ruling, however, was later overturned by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
McLaughlin’s execution “would highlight all the flaws of the justice system and would be a great injustice on a number of levels,” Komp, her attorney, told CNN previously.
“It would continue the systemic failures that existed throughout Amber’s life where no interventions occurred to stop and intercede to protect her as a child and teen,” Komp said. “All that could go wrong did go wrong for her.”
Taraneh Alidoosti: Iranian actress arrested after criticizing execution of protester
CNN
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One of Iran’s best-known actresses has been arrested days after she criticized the execution of a man who was involved in the nationwide protests that have swept the country since September.
Taraneh Alidoosti, who starred in the 2016 Oscar-winning film, “The Salesman,” had condemned the hanging of Mohsen Shekari, who was killed this month in the first known execution linked to the protests. Shekari was reportedly convicted of “waging war against God” for stabbing a member of the Basij paramilitary force at a protest in Tehran on September 23.
State media outlet Fars News Agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, said Alidoosti had been arrested because there was a “lack of evidence for her claims.”
Known as a feminist activist, Alidoosti last month published a picture of herself on Instagram without the Islamic hijab and holding a sign reading “Women, Life, Freedom” to show support for the protest movement.
After Shekari’s execution, she said in another post: “Your silence means supporting tyranny and tyrants,” adding that “every international organization who is watching this bloodshed and not taking action, is a disgrace to humanity.”
Her Instagram account has since been deleted.
Days after Shekari was hanged, a second execution took place on December 12. Majidreza Rahnavard was hanged in the northeastern city of Mashhad after he was accused of killing two paramilitary officers.
“Some celebrities make claims without evidence and publish provocations and have been thus arrested,” Far News Agency said in its report on Alidoosti.
Local rights group, Committee to Counter Violence Against Women in Iranian Cinema, said on Twitter that it wasn’t clear which government department had taken Alidoosti into custody.
Alidoosti, who has appeared in various popular Iranian TV shows, is known for her activism in the MeToo movement in Iran’s cinema industry.
Last month, she denied reports that she had left Iran, writing that she planned to stay in the country and stop working.
“I will stand by the families of prisoners and the killed and will demand justice for them. I will fight for my home and I will pay any cost to stand for my rights,” she wrote.
Several Iranians have been sentenced to death by execution during the nationwide protests, which were sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was apprehended by the state’s morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly.
Her death touched a nerve in the Islamic Republic, with prominent public figures coming out in support of the movement. The protests have since coalesced around a range of grievances with the authoritarian regime.
According to Amnesty International, as of November, Iranian authorities were seeking the death penalty for at least 21 people in connection with the protests.
At least 458 people have been killed in the unrest since September, according to Norway-based Iran Human Rights on Wednesday.
CNN cannot independently verify the number of people facing executions in Iran, or the latest arrest figures or death tolls related to the protests, as precise figures are impossible for anyone outside the Iranian government to confirm.
Iran carries out first known protest-related execution, state media reports
CNN
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Iran has executed a man for injuring a paramilitary officer in the first known execution linked to protests that have swept the country since September, state media reported Thursday.
Mizan Online, a news agency affiliated with Iran’s judiciary, and the semi-official Tasmin news agency both named the protester as Mohsen Shekari. He was reportedly convicted of “waging war against God” for stabbing a member of the Basij paramilitary force at a protest in Tehran on September 23.
Shekari was sentenced to death on October 23, and executed by hanging on Thursday morning, according to Mizan Online. It was the first execution connected to the protests to be publicly reported by state media.
Iran Human Rights, a non-profit rights organization which has members inside and outside the country, has called for a strong international response to the execution.
“His execution must be met with the strongest possible terms and international reactions. Otherwise, we will be facing daily executions of protesters who are protesting for their fundamental human rights,” the group’s director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam told CNN.
Amiry-Moghaddam said that Shekari was executed without any due process or access to a lawyer of his choice in a “show trial” by the Revolutionary Court.
Several European governments strongly criticized Iran for the execution. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in a tweet that Shekari “was tried and executed in a perfidious rushed trial for disagreeing with the regime.”
“The Iranian regime’s inhumanity knows no bounds,” she said. “But the threat of execution will not suffocate people’s desire for freedom.”
French foreign ministry spokeswoman Anne-Claire Legendre said France condemned the execution in the “strongest terms” and “reiterated its strongest commitment to the right to peaceful protest.” She said the demands by the protesters are “legitimate and must be heard.”
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said he was “outraged by the tragic news of the first execution of a protestor in Iran,” while the foreign ministry of the Czech Republic, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, described the news as “appalling,” and said “the Iranian regime uses outrageously disproportionate penalties to instill terror in its population.”
Iran’s former president Mohammad Khatami on Tuesday urged the current government to be more lenient with protesters.
In a message ahead of Students’ Day on December 7 – which marks the anniversary of the murder of three university students by Iranian police under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s regime in 1953 – the reformist former leader said the government must listen to the demonstrators before it is too late.
Other Iranian public figures have also recently called on the government to take action to listen and protect protesters.
Prominent Iranian Sunni cleric Molavi Abdolhamid Ismaeelzahi on Tuesday called on the country’s judiciary to investigate and prosecute individuals abusing women in prisons.
Several Iranians have been sentenced to death by execution during the nationwide protests, which were sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was apprehended by the state’s morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly.
Her death touched a nerve in the Islamic Republic, with prominent public figures coming out in support of the movement, including top Iranian actor Taraneh Alidoosti. The protests have since coalesced around a range of grievances with the authoritarian regime.
According to Amnesty International, as of November, Iranian authorities are seeking the death penalty for at least 21 people in connection with the protests.
At least 458 people have been killed in the unrest since September, according to Norway-based Iran Human Rights on Wednesday.
CNN cannot independently verify the number of people facing executions in Iran, or the latest arrest figures or death tolls related to the protests, as precise figures are impossible for anyone outside the Iranian government to confirm.
Since the demonstrations began, authorities have unleashed a deadly crackdown, with reports of forced detentions and physical abuse being used to target the country’s Kurdish minority group.
In a recent CNN investigation, covert testimony revealed sexual violence against protesters, including boys, in Iran’s detention centers since the start of the unrest.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Supreme Leader has praised the Basij – a wing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard – for its role in the crackdown, describing the protest movement as “rioters” and “thugs” backed by foreign forces.
In late November, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said Iran was in a “full-fledged human rights crisis,” and called for an independent investigation into violations of human rights in the country.
Iran conducts first protest-related execution | News
DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,
The person was convicted of injuring a security guard with a long knife, semi-official Tasnim news agency reports.
Iran says it has executed the first prisoner known to be convicted for an alleged crime stemming from ongoing nationwide protests.
The person was convicted of injuring a security guard with a long knife and closing off a Tehran street, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Thursday.
Tasnim added that the Supreme Court had rejected the appeal made by the defendant and justified the sentence by saying the defendant’s actions represented a “crime of waging war against God”.
Iran has been rocked by protests since the September 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died after being detained by the country’s morality police.
Tasnim identified the person who was executed as Mohsen Shekari but gave no more details.
Authorities have been cracking down on the protests and on Monday, the elite Revolutionary Guards praised the judiciary for what it called its tough stand and encouraged it to swiftly and decisively issue judgements for defendants accused of “crimes against the security of the nation and Islam”.
Judiciary spokesman Masoud Setayeshi announced on Tuesday that five people indicted in the killing of a Basij member were sentenced to death in a verdict which they can appeal.
Amnesty International has said the Iranian authorities are seeking the death penalty for at least 21 people in what it called “sham trials designed to intimidate those participating in the popular uprising that has rocked Iran”.
“The Iranian authorities must immediately quash all death sentences, refrain from seeking the imposition of the death penalty and drop all charges against those arrested in connection with their peaceful participation in protests,” it said.
19-year-old Khorry Ramey too you to witness Kevin Johnson’s execution: Judge
A 19-year-old woman is too young to witness the state of Missouri execute her father, who was sentenced to death for killing a police officer when he was a teen, a federal judge ruled.
Khorry Ramey requested to be present for Kevin Johnson’s final moments, but US District Judge Brian Wimes said in a ruling that execution witnesses need to be at least 21 years old, NBC News reported.
Missouri and Nevada are the only states that require witnesses to be 21, Ramey’s attorneys argued.
“I’m heartbroken that I won’t be able to be with my dad in his last moments,” Ramey said in a statement, adding that he “has worked very hard to rehabilitate himself in prison. I pray that [Gov. Mike] Parson will give my dad clemency.”
Johnson, now 37, is scheduled to die by lethal injection Nov. 29 for the 2005 killing of Kirkwood Police Officer William McEntee, a crime he committed when he was 19 and Ramey was 2.
He selected his daughter as one of the five people permitted to witness his death, but the Missouri Department of Corrections rejected the request, a move the ACLU argued violates both the First and Fourteenth amendments.
“Missouri executes people, like Mr. Johnson, for crimes committed as adults but before their 21st birthday illustrates the irrationality of the statute’s requirement that execution witnesses not only be adults but also at least 21 years old,” the filing states.
Missing her father’s execution will cause Ramey “irreparable harm,” her attorneys said.
In a court declaration earlier this week, Ramey called Johnson “the most important person in my life.”
Ramey and Johnson have a very close relationship and he is her only living parent, the ACLU said. She witnessed the murder of her mother at the hands of an ex-boyfriend when she was just 4 years old.
With the execution date looming, Johnson’s attorneys are filing appeals to save his life. They admit Johnson’s guilt, but argue that a history of mental illness and argue his age at the time of the crime should warrant court intervention. They also claim racism played a role in his death penalty sentencing — Johnson is black and McEntee was white.
McEntee arrived at Johnson’s home in 2005 to serve an arrest warrant to Johnson, who police believed violated the probation he was on for assaulting his girlfriend.
When McEntee showed up at the house, Johnson’s younger brother, Joseph “Bam Bam” Long, 12, ran next door to their grandmother’s house, where he collapsed and began having a seizure.
Johnson testified that McEntee kept the boys’ mother from going into the house to help the seizing boy. Joseph later died at a hospital.
Upon seeing McEntee in the neighborhood later that evening, Johnson approached the officer and shot him twice.
“The surviving victims of Johnson’s crimes have waited long enough for justice, and every day longer that they must wait is a day they are denied the chance to finally make peace with their loss,” stated a state petition filed last week by the Missouri Attorney General’s Office to the Supreme Court.
With Post Wires