Ernest Lee Johnson, who killed three people at a Columbia, Mo., convenience store in 1994, has exhausted all appeals and is now down to his final two lifelines – an order from the Supreme Court or Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon – less than 24 hours before his scheduled execution.
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The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2002 ruling referred to clinical definitions of intellectual disability as a disability manifested before age 18 that is characterized by significant sub-average intellectual functioning, with limitations in two or more areas.
“The court of appeals held Johnson’s complaint to the same standard as any other complaint filed in federal district court”, Spillane said. 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.
Johnson’s attorneys are now asking for a hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court – arguing that the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals erred in refusing their appeal Friday.
According to Johnson’s attorney, Jeremy Weis, Johnson was raised in a troubled home and he had an IQ of 63 while still in elementary school. Testing after his conviction measured the IQ at 67, still a level considered mentally handicapped.
The Missouri Attorney General’s office, however, said both claims are without merit.
Johnson was convicted of bludgeoning to death Mary Bratcher, Mabel Scrubbs and Fred Jones using a hammer, a screw driver and a gun, according to court records.
All three workers were beaten to death with a claw hammer, and their bodies were hidden in a cooler.
The lawyer says Johnson is prone to seizures.
A second appeal, to the Missouri Supreme Court, claims Johnson’s life should be spared because he is mentally disabled.
If executed, Johnson will be the seventh person to die by lethal injection in the state this year. The Missouri Supreme Court tossed that sentence, too, forcing another sentencing hearing.
Johnson was convicted in 1995 of killing Bratcher, Jones and Scruggs, and was sentenced to death. Only Texas, with 12, has performed more executions than Missouri in 2015.
After 21 years of the attack, Johnson, who is now 55, will be executed on Tuesday evening at the state prison in Bonne Terre.
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The execution was due to be carried out with drugs including pentobarbital, which numbs the central nervous system including parts of the brain. The 74-year-old also suffered brain damage from a sawmill accident.
