Supreme Court Grants Last-Minute Stay of Execution for Neurologically Impaired Missouri Man
The U.S. Supreme Court has granted a stay of execution while a lower court considers the appeal of a condemned Missouri man convicted of beating three people to death with a claw hammer, reports the Associated Press.
Ernest Lee Johnson was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder for killing Mary Bratcher, Mable Scruggs, and Fred Jones in a robbery of a convenience store in 1994.
All three workers were beaten to death with a claw hammer, but Bratcher was also stabbed at least 10 times with a screwdriver and Jones was shot in the face. Johnson hid the bodies in a cooler.
Johnson’s attorney, Jeremy Weis, has argued that Johnson is mentally disabled, and that testing after his conviction measured his IQ as 67, “still a level considered mentally disabled.” In 2001 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that “executing the mentally disabled was unconstitutionally cruel,” but a 2003 re-sentencing hearing again handed down a death sentence for Johnson. When that sentence was also thrown out by the Missouri Supreme Court, Johnson was again sentenced to death, in a 2006 sentencing hearing.
Mental disability isn’t the extent of Johnson’s vulnerability, here: in 2008, Johnson underwent brain surgery to remove a benign tumor. Doctors were unable to remove the entire tumor, but the surgery did remove 20 percent of Johnson’s brain tissue, and the result has been painful seizures and impaired motor skills. The appeal being considered by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals complains that this circumstance could cause Johnson to experience painful seizures during a lethal injection. Whatever your position on capital punishment, a condemned prisoner being made to endure extraordinary pain during their execution falls under cruel and unusual punishment.
Weis cites a medical review by Dr. Joel Zivot, who examined MRI images of Johnson’s brain and found “significant brain damage and defects that resulted from the tumor and the surgical procedure,” according to court filings.
“Mr. Johnson faces a significant medical risk for a serious seizure as the direct result of the combination of the Missouri lethal injection protocol and Mr. Johnson’s permanent and disabling neurologic disease,” Zivot wrote.
Johnson was scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. this evening, before the stay was granted. It is unclear how soon the lower court will rule on Johnson’s appeal.
