Court greenlights execution of Missouri man who presented evidence from racist prosecutor

[ad_1]

CASE CAPITAL By Amy Howe November 29, 2022 at 8:50 p.m.

For the second time in less than a week, the Supreme Court has refused to block Kevin Johnson’s execution, clearing the way for Missouri to perform his lethal injection Tuesday night.

Johnson, who is black, argued in his latest appeal that his execution should be stayed in light of recent findings by a special prosecutor that Johnson’s initial prosecutor was routinely biased against black defendants.

Judges Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson disagreed with the brief court order allowing the execution to continue.

Johnson was convicted and received the death sentence for the 2005 shooting death of William McEntee, a police officer. Johnson, who is black, came to the Supreme Court on November 10, arguing that his death sentence was tainted with racial bias and that his execution would violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. On November 23, judges refused to postpone his execution to give him time to pursue these arguments.

Johnson returned to the Supreme Court on Tuesday morning, again asking the justices to stay his execution. He said a stay was needed to give the Missouri Supreme Court time to consider his claims that the prosecutor in his case discriminated against black defendants in deciding whether to seek bail. death penalty and also regularly discriminated against in jury selection.

Last month, a state trial court appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the original prosecutors’ allegations of racism. The special prosecutor found clear evidence that the original prosecutor consistently made racially influenced decisions in his handling of capital homicides. Based on these findings, the special prosecutor filed a motion to have Johnson’s death sentence overturned.

Calling Johnson’s new stay request a transparent refusal to accept moral responsibility for his crimes, Missouri urged the court to allow Johnson’s execution to proceed as planned. The state dismissed Johnson’s racial bias claims as completely baseless. But in any event, he continued, a Missouri Supreme Court decision denying Johnson’s request to stay his execution rested on its finding that Johnson’s allegations were not covered by a new state law that allows prosecutors to make post-conviction motions on behalf of inmates. Therefore, the state concluded that the Missouri Supreme Court’s decision was based on an independent ground of state law, which bars the United States Supreme Court from reviewing it.

This article was originally published in Howe on the Court.

[ad_2]