Missouri Democratic lawmakers have joined the chorus of voices urging Gov. Mike Parson to stop the upcoming execution of a death row inmate missing a fifth of his brain and widely believed to be intellectually disabled.
Missouri Department of Corrections/Reuters
Johnson’s planned execution has sparked protests from critics who say it would be cruel and unusual punishment to put him to death because he suffers from an intellectual disability. Johnson has a benign tumor in his brain, and a 2008 operation to remove it left him missing up to 20 percent of brain tissue, his lawyer has said.
Johnson’s attorney, Jeremy Weis, said the court’s ruling was riddled with “legal and factual errors” and that Johnson “meets all statutory and clinical definitions” of intellectual disability. Weis argues that Johnson should be protected under the Eighth Amendment, which bars the execution of intellectually disabled people. He said IQ tests put Johnson’s intellect somewhere in the range of 67-77.
Johnson has already been sentenced to death three times—in 2001, 2003, and 2006. The sentences were overturned the first two times.
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