Gov. Parson won't stop execution of intellectually disabled Missouri man

[Judi Lynn]

Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

KURT ERICKSON ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
OCTOBER 04, 2021 9:25 PM

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri Gov. Mike Parson won’t stop the execution Tuesday of Ernest Lee Johnson, saying he believes the evidence showed the intellectually disabled man was fully aware of his crime.

“The state is prepared to deliver justice and carry out the lawful sentence Mr. Johnson received in accordance with the Missouri Supreme Court’s order,” the Republican governor said.

The announcement came amid pleas for Parson to spare the life of Johnson, 61, from Pope Francis, a former Missouri governor, members of Congress and faith-based groups, who want the governor to halt the execution, which is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday at the state’s death chamber in Bonne Terre.

Pope Francis last week asked Parson to commute Johnson’s sentence. In a letter to Parson, the Pope did not deny that “grave crimes such as his deserve grave punishment” but called on Parson to consider “the simple fact of Mr. Johnson’s humanity and the sacredness of all human life.”

Read more: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/nation-world/national/article254763337.html

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Governor Mike Parson, on the right.

[RockRaven]

1. Sick fuck.

[sakabatou]

2. The cult of death continues

[joshdawg]

3. Bloodthirsty B*****d!!

[SouthBayDem]

4. Back in 1992 then-Governor Clinton (AR) oversaw the execution of Tickets Ricky Ray Rector

In that case a judge ruled the suspect was competent to stand trial. But in the Missouri killer's case his death sentence was overturned TWICE before!

Also this story is rehosted from the Kansas City Star: https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article254758287.html

[padah513]

5. Ernest Lee Johnson is a black man

Of course, he's not stopping it. He still has Kevin Strickland, an innocent black man, locked up and won't pardon him because he's not a priority, but then he turns around and makes that McKloskey guy and his wife a priority for a pardon because McCloskey's running for Senate.

[catchnrelease]

6. He's pro-life I'm sure

Another hypocrite.

[marble falls]

10. Has to be, I bet the mook in the televangist haircut and snake oil salesman suit is his "preacher"

which one owns the pet orange shitgibbon, or the ape own the other two?

[PatSeg]

11. That's Senator Roy Blunt

I can always spot him by that republican hair. Yes, he definitely does look like a televangelist.

[marble falls]

12. Speaking of snake oil salesmen ... right?

[PatSeg]

15. Absolutely, just a little too slick to be mistaken as human beings

Bill Frist and John Boehner had that plastic hair style as well. I wonder what they would look like during a severe storm. Somehow I think that hair wouldn't move an inch.

[Sherman A1]

7. Governor Do Nothing

Just useless.

[oldsoftie]

8. "intelluctually disabled" is usually used as a last ditch effort.

Truly disabled people very rarely attack and kill someone.

[qzwv8j]

9. Not true

An adult with an intellect of a child acts as a child…. Are you saying children don’t fight or lash out when angered? You are obviously not a parent or around children very often….

[marble falls]

14. Glad you joined!

[marble falls]

13. Ummmm .... no.

[marble falls]

16. "As a result of having fetal alcohol syndrome and a brain tumor, Ernest Lee Johnson has an IQ ...

... around 69, according to various tests."

[oldsoftie]

21. Tests taken AFTER brain surgery in prison.

Again, adults with low IQs living independently are very rarely violently attacking people.
THIS man knew what he was doing

[marble falls]

22. SCOTUS ruled in a very simple way: executing people with mental conditons that make them ...

... them unable to appreciate or understand their situation is cruel and unusual punishment.

I was a brilliant brain surgeon until a surgery on me left me with 80% of my brain and the mental age of a twelve year old. Are you still going tolet me operate on your favorite child?

I'll accept your undocumented claim: "Again, adults with low IQs living independently are very rarely violently attacking people..."- that really speaks to why he should not have been executed. Isn't it the goal of prison and execution to punish and prevent further criminality?

If he is incapable of understanding his execution, doesn't that except punishment or correction and leave only vengeance?

Executing someone just to get even has not a thing to do with justice. But mercy does.

[oldsoftie]

23. My point was that he likely wasnt mentally disabled when he murdered those people

If you look at the cases brought before the courts making these assertions, usually its a last ditch effort because every other type of appeal failed. If he was in the same state during his original trial, this should have been the FIRST defense; "he didnt understand what he was doing".
Getting that way in prison doesnt negate the validity of the sentence.
I'm still fully supportive of changing the qualifications for seeking the DP though.

[obamanut2012]

17. wrong

[Martin68]

18. Missouri, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and South Carolina all pretty much agree

that the death penalty, when applied to African Americans, is never wrong.

[orangecrush]

19. I pray there is an afterlife

And a day of reckoning for these vile scum.

[ccjlld]

24. I am not quite sure how I feel about this.

The murders happened in my city. I know the person who was the regional manager for Casey's at the time and had to deal with the aftermath including cleaning the crime scene. It affected a lot of people here.

A lot has been said of his mental state, but I don't believe that he didn't know what he was doing. He visited the store 4 times that day before the murders. He asked the day time clerk what time the shift change was. He had told his girlfriend's son a month earlier he was planning on robbing the store. The day of the murder, he bought 4 rocks of crack, asked the girlfriend's son to borrow a gun he had traded for crack earlier in the month. He brought the gun back, but the last time he went to the store, he picked it up again and he was dressed differently, in layers of clothes, black tennis shoes, and a mask over his face. After the murders, he returned to his girlfriend's house in bloody clothes. He cleaned his shoes, removed the clothes and had his girlfriend's other son get rid of the clothes, the shoes, the gun and ammunition. He also had the money from the robbery which he hid in the house.

He beat these people to death with a claw hammer, one of the women had 10 stab wounds from a flat head screwdriver in her left hand and the male had been shot in the face, although the wound was non-lethal

All this being said, even though I believe that he knew what he was doing, that he knew it was wrong, and he was purposefully intoxicated on crack, I have a lot of doubts as to whether he could have, in what was his current state after the brain surgery, understood why he was being put to death. I would not have had a problem with, at some point in all the appeals, if they had changed his sentence to life without parole.

I also think Parson is a worthless POS.