Even though Missouri law says that no one under 21 can watch an execution, a 19-year-old woman asks a federal court to let her watch her father die by injection. Kevin Johnson will be put to death on November 29 for killing William McEntee, a police officer in Kirkwood, Missouri, in 2005. Johnson‘s lawyers have appealed in the works that try to stop him from being put to death.
Johnson has asked that his daughter Khorry Ramey be at the execution, and she wants to be there. On Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union went to a federal court in Kansas City and asked for help. In a court filing, the ACLU said that the law that no one under 21 can watch an execution is not about safety and violates Ramey’s rights under the Constitution. In a court document, Ramey said that Johnson was the most important person.
“If my father were dying in the hospital, I would sit by his bed, hold his hand, and pray for him until he died, both as a source of comfort for him and as a comfort for me as a necessary part of my grieving process and for my peace of mind,” Ramey said.
Johnson, now 37, has been in jail since Ramey was two years old. The ACLU said the two have become close through meetings, phone calls, emails, and letters. Last month, she took her new baby to visit his grandfather in prison. Anthony Rothert, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, stated that it would inflict Ramey “irreparable suffering” if she could not attend the execution.
If a person can be put to death at the age of 19, according to Michelle Smith, a spokesperson for Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, that person’s family member has the right to be a witness when the state executes her father. She said this in an interview with KMOV.
In the meantime, Johnson’s legal team has submitted appeals to stay his execution. They do not dispute his guilt but assert that racism played a factor in the decision to seek the death penalty as well as the conclusion of the jury to sentence him to death. Johnson is of the Black race, while McEntee is of the White race.
A history of mental illness and the fact that Johnson was just 19 years old at the time of the crime are why Johnson’s attorneys have requested the courts to intervene on their client’s behalf. Since the Supreme Court issued its ruling in 2005 that prohibited the execution of criminals younger than 18 at the time of their crime, the trend in the judicial system has been toward moving away from passing death sentences on juvenile offenders.
The office of the Attorney General of Missouri indicated that there were no grounds for court involvement in a document submitted to the United States Supreme Court a week ago. In the petition that was introduced to the state, it was said that “the surviving victims of Johnson’s crimes have waited long enough for justice” and that “every day that they must wait is a day that they are denied the chance to make peace with their loss finally.”
When he was 19 years old, Kevin Johnson killed a police officer, William McEntee, and was sentenced to death. His execution is scheduled for November 29th. Missouri is now fighting to prevent Kevin’s 19-year-old daughter from witnessing the execution of her father.
— Sister Helen Prejean (@helenprejean) November 26, 2022
On July 5, 2005, McEntee, married and a father of three children was one of the police officers who went to Johnson’s house to serve a warrant for Johnson’s arrest. The authorities suspected that Johnson had broken the terms of his probation for beating his girlfriend, for which he was on probation.
When Johnson saw the police arrive, he roused up his younger brother Joseph “Bam Bam” Long, 12 years old at the time, and told him to run to their grandmother’s house next door. The young youngster, born with a heart abnormality, passed out and started having seizures as soon as they arrived at their destination.
During the trial, Johnson testified that McEntee prevented his mother from entering the home to assist Johnson’s brother, who was eventually pronounced dead at a hospital. McEntee presented Johnson’s testimony.
Later the same day, McEntee returned to the neighbourhood to investigate separate allegations of fireworks being set off there. That is when he came into contact with Johnson. Johnson drew his weapon and fired a shot at the officer. After that, he crouched next to the wounded cop and fired another shot at him, ultimately taking his life.
This would be the first of three executions scheduled in Missouri in the coming months. Scott McLaughlin and Leonard Taylor, both of whom were found guilty of murder, are expected to be put to death by the state on either January 3 or February 7. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, there are now twenty people awaiting execution in the form of Missouri.
This year, the United States passed the death penalty for sixteen persons. The execution of Alabama inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith was supposed to take place on Thursday for the murder of a preacher’s wife as part of a murder-for-hire plan. However, the execution was postponed because state officials could not locate a suitable vein for injecting the deadly chemicals.
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