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Thread: Donnie Edward Johnson - Tennessee Execution - May 16, 2019

  1. #51
    Senior Member Frequent Poster stixfix69's Avatar
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    This is why i feel that execution must be carried out within 5-7 years max, when you allow someone to sit on death row for this long a period, so many forget the victims, and the kind of death they met. For this to happen now, when the crime occurred in 1984 is a injustice...

  2. #52
    Senior Member Frequent Poster Ted's Avatar
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    Johnson died at 7:37pm.
    Violence and death seem to be the only answers that some people understand.

  3. #53
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Tennessee executes Donnie Edward Johnson by lethal injection

    Death row inmate Donnie Edward Johnson died at 7:37 p.m. CDT Thursday after Tennessee prison officials executed him by lethal injection. He was 68.

    He was the 136th person put to death by Tennessee since 1916 and the fourth person since the state resumed executions in August.

    Johnson was sentenced to death for the 1984 murder of his wife, Connie Johnson, in Memphis. He suffocated her by stuffing a 30-gallon trash bag down her throat.

    Moments before officials began administering the fatal doses, Johnson, held down by straps over his chest and arms and said: "I commend my life into your hands. Thy will be done. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen."

    Then for two minutes, he sang two hymns.

    Johnson and his legal team have not questioned the horrific nature of his crime.

    But they have stressed his religious transformation behind bars while urging Gov. Bill Lee to grant him mercy. Johnson became an elder in the Seventh-day Adventist Church on death row, and leads prayer services for his fellow inmates.

    Connie Johnson's daughter Cynthia Vaughn, whom Donnie Johnson adopted, became an advocate for her stepfather in the lead-up to the execution, begging the governor to intervene. Johnson's son said the state should carry out the death sentence.

    An hour before the execution, a group of people believed to be witnesses walked into the prison with their arms linked. Johnson’s spiritual adviser John Dysinger and his wife came and met with him and left.

    They said they didn’t want to witness the execution.

    "This tragedy has come to an end for us all," Johnson's family said in a statement through their attorney. "For some, the pain will remain forever."

    While Johnson has recently received a lot of media attention surrounding his execution, the family said they hope the victim is remembered.

    "Connie was loved and has been missed these many years," the statement said. "Connie had a great laugh and the kindest heart. We pray for peace for her children and for her family. We hope today will give Connie's family some closure they so deeply deserve."

    Johnson is the second death row inmate to die by lethal injection since the state resumed executions last year. Billy Ray Irick died by lethal injection on Aug. 9. The state electrocuted Edmund Zagorski and David Miller.

    The blinds to the execution room lifted at 7:17 p.m.

    After he sang and made his statement, officials administered the cocktail of powerful and deadly drugs.

    First the midazolam, a drug intended to render Johnson unconscious, then vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride, drugs intended to stop his lungs and heart.

    By 7:24 p.m. Johnson made a snoring noise and the warden checked to see if he was conscious. Minutes later, there was a high-pitched "ah," noise, media witnesses report.

    Unlike in past executions, Johnson's legal team did not pursue myriad last-minute legal maneuvers. Instead, they put their hopes in the governor. Lee on Tuesday denied Johnson clemency.

    “After a prayerful and deliberate consideration of Don Johnson's request for clemency, and after a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence of the State of Tennessee and will not be intervening,” Lee said.

    Religious leaders and others had hoped Johnson's plea would appeal to Lee's own Christian faith, something he touted during his successful campaign for governor last year.

    Many felt that, if any Tennessee death row inmate deserved mercy because of a transformation behind bars, it was Johnson. Some had argued that Johnson should have remained in prison for life, allowing him to continue to minister to others

    Leaders of several Christian faiths, including the president of the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church and Catholic and Episcopal bishops in Tennessee, had urged Lee to halt the execution.

    Still, while Lee's decision was a blow to religious leaders, they along with Johnson's legal team said the inmate was at peace with the decision.

    The Rev. Charles Fels, Johnson's clemency attorney, said Johnson "accepts it as God’s will."

    "Although we appreciate Gov. Lee and his staff for carefully considering our application for clemency for Don, we, along with thousands of Christians in Tennessee and around the world, are deeply saddened by today’s decision," Fels said in a statement Tuesday.

    "Also disappointed are thousands of citizens who had hoped that Governor Lee would use his unique constitutional clemency power to consider matters that no court could, including moral transformation, forgiveness, and the entire positive arc of Don’s life after 1984."

    Outside the prison Thursday about 50 people stood in a circle in a field, protesting Johnson's execution. They sang and shared stories of redemption as they hoped for a last-minute call from Lee to stop the execution.

    "I am not thankful for what is happening but I am happy for the testimony he has shown," said Pastor Kevin Riggs, adding the last time he saw Johnson, he appeared tired.

    "I was discouraged but Don told me not to worry," Riggs said.

    On the other side of the fence from the group stood Rick Laude, 56, a lone supporter for the execution.

    Johnson, he said, brought his fate upon himself.

    Though usually loud and boisterous in his demonstrations at past executions, Laude was silent Thursday.

    Johnson, who once told police he did not kill his wife, stopped contesting his guilt. In his clemency application, he said a childhood of abuse and neglect led him to become "a liar, a cheat, a con man and a murderer."

    The Tennessee Supreme Court described Connie Johnson's death as "inhuman and brutal to an almost indescribable degree.” Other relatives said her death tore the family apart

    Some victim advocates had lobbied for Lee to allow the execution to proceed, including Johnson's estranged son Jason, who disagreed sharply with his half-sister Cynthia Vaughn about Donnie Johnson's fate.

    Jason Johnson also reached out to Lee to make his case.

    “If he found redemption, that doesn’t matter. That’s between him and God,” Jason Johnson said. “His forgiveness is to come from the Lord and his redemption is to come from the Lord, not the government. The Bible also says, ‘An eye for an eye.’ ”

    The crime occurred about two weeks before Christmas, when Donnie Johnson — aided by a co-worker — left his wife’s body in a van outside the Mall of Memphis.

    Retired Memphis Police officers Jerry Bursi and John Garner remember her lying in the van with the plastic garbage bag stuffed down her throat. Her purse was missing. Only about 2 inches of the 30-gallon bag protruded from her mouth, they said.

    A Shelby County medical examiner would later say that she had cuts and bruises on her head, that she bled internally and had fought back.

    Donnie Johnson had killed her earlier that day at his workplace. During his trial, witnesses testified that they had been talking about divorce — and that Donnie Johnson had said he couldn’t afford one.

    Connie Johnson was only 30 at the time of her death. The couple were approaching their seventh wedding anniversary.

    Relatives recalled that she loved to dance and joke and cared deeply for her two children. She had grown up on a farm in a large family and was a hard worker. At times, she juggled her studies with a job and being a mother.

    “He took such a good person and a good mother and a good daughter and a good sister. I don’t understand why,” said Wanda Clark, one of Connie Johnson’s sisters. “Connie wanted to live too. She loved her home, she loved her family, and she loved her kids. For somebody to come and take all this away, it don’t make no sense. Not a bit.”

    https://www.tennessean.com/story/new...on/3668943002/
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  4. #54
    Senior Member CnCP Addict one_two_bomb's Avatar
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    I am genuinely happy that he is gone. Honestly I don't care of he is remorseful or not, that's between him and his higher power. As far as I am concerned he committed a disgusting crime and has averted the consequences for decades. This was long overdue, and the world is a better place without Donnie Johnson.

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