Missouri executes a man for the 1998 killing of a woman despite her family’s calls to spare his life

Missouri executed a man on Tuesday for the 1998 killing of a woman, despite pleas from the victim’s family to spare his life. The execution of Ernest Lee Johnson marked the first in the state since May 2019 and the first in the country since a federal execution in January.

Johnson was convicted of killing three people during a robbery at a convenience store in Columbia, Missouri in 1994. He was also convicted of killing Mary Bratcher, a 46-year-old gas station attendant, during another robbery in 1994. Johnson was sentenced to death for Bratcher’s murder.

Despite his conviction and death sentence, Johnson’s attorneys argued that he should be spared because he had an intellectual disability and brain damage from a tumor. They also argued that the lethal injection drug used in Missouri’s executions could cause him cruel and unusual suffering due to his medical conditions.

However, the Missouri Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court both rejected his appeals for a stay of execution. Johnson’s execution was carried out by lethal injection at the state prison in Bonne Terre on Tuesday evening.

The victim’s family, including Bratcher’s daughter, had called for Johnson’s sentence to be commuted to life in prison without parole. They cited his medical conditions and his remorse for the crime as reasons to spare his life.

“It’s not going to bring my mom back, and I don’t believe in the death penalty,” Bratcher’s daughter told reporters before the execution. “I just want closure. I want him to spend the rest of his life in prison thinking about what he did.”

Despite the family’s calls for mercy, Missouri Governor Mike Parson declined to intervene in Johnson’s case. In a statement, Parson said that he had carefully reviewed the case and believed that justice had been served with Johnson’s execution.

The execution of Ernest Lee Johnson has reignited the debate over the death penalty in Missouri and beyond. Advocates for abolition of the death penalty argue that it is a cruel and inhumane punishment that does not deter crime, while supporters argue that it is necessary for justice and closure for victims’ families.

As the debate continues, the state of Missouri has now carried out its first execution in over two years, with the fate of other death row inmates still hanging in the balance.