The US state of Missouri plans to execute a death row inmate on Tuesday in the absence of his 19-year-old daughter, who was not allowed to witness the scene due to her young age.
Kevin Johnson was the same age when he killed a white police officer in the suburbs of St. Louis, in the central United States, in 2005. Sentenced to death for this crime, the 37-year-old African-American must receive a lethal injection 6:00 p.m. (midnight in Paris) at the Bonne Terre penitentiary.
As the deadline approached, his defenders filed a series of judicial appeals to try to save him, in particular due to suspicions of racism in the process. No success at this stage.
Convicted in 2007
Likewise, his daughter Corionsa Ramey failed to convince the courts that a Missouri law setting 21 as the minimum age for witnessing an execution was arbitrary and unconstitutional.
“I am heartbroken that I cannot be with my father in his last moments,” she commented after the dismissal of her complaint, on Friday, by a federal judge.
“He has been there for me my entire life, despite his imprisonment. He is a good father, the only father I have left, ”added the young woman in a press release.
Kevin Johnson shot and killed a white police officer on July 5, 2005, two hours after his 12-year-old brother died of a heart attack. He was convinced that the police, present at the time of the death, were responsible.
After a first trial in which the juries could not agree on the verdict, he was sentenced in 2007 to the death penalty.
But the prosecutor in charge of his case, replaced in 2019, was accused of treating black and white defendants differently, prompting his successor to open a unit aimed at correcting possible judicial errors.
In this context, a special prosecutor was appointed in the autumn to examine Kevin Johnson’s file. In mid-November, he asked the court to stay the execution until its investigation was completed. His appeal, along with a similar motion filed by Johnson’s lawyers, was pending Monday in the Missouri Supreme Court.
If he doesn’t succeed, Kevin Johnson will be the 17th prisoner executed since the beginning of the year in the United States.
Source: BFM TV
