On Tuesday night, an intellectually disabled man with a brain tumor will die by lethal injection in Missouri, for the murder of three convenience store workers in 1994. Unless the Supreme Court grants an eleventh-hour stay or the governor offers him clemency, Ernest Lee Johnson will become the seventh person the state has executed in 2015.
Johnson was first convicted for the killings in 1995. Seeking money to sustain his crack cocaine addiction, Johnson went to the convenience store to steal cash. In the process, he killed three employees with a hammer, stabbing one with a screwdriver.
Attorneys have appealed the death penalty sentence on the grounds that his IQ of 67 is low enough that putting him to death is unconstitutional. They have also appealed the lethal injection, arguing that the midazolam and pentobarbital used in the drug cocktail could present “a substantial and justifiable risk” of pain because Johnson has a brain tumor. Both appeals were rejected by the Missouri Supreme Court.
Leading up to the scheduled execution, Johnson’s lawyers have turned to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that the gas chamber would be a viable alternative to lethal injection. They are challenging a federal appeals court ruling that the gas option is not “a feasible or readily implementable alternative,” since the state does not currently have a functioning chamber.
Since 1995, Johnson has been retried twice. After the initial conviction, the Missouri Supreme Court called for a retrial because Johnson did not receive sufficient legal representation. He was convicted a second time. In 2003, two years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it is cruel, unusual, and unconstitutional to execute people with mental disabilities, the state’s Supreme Court ordered another retrial for Johnson. He was convicted a third time and received three death penalty sentences.
Missouri currently has the highest execution rate per capita in the country, surpassing Texas. Capital punishment in the state has bipartisan support, including the support of Gov. Jay Nixon and Attorney General Chris Koster. Defense attorneys assigned to capital cases are stretched thin and have very little money to work with.
In March, Missouri executed another man with a low IQ. The 74-year-old also suffered brain damage from a sawmill accident.