Page 4 of 4 FirstFirst ... 234
Results 31 to 36 of 36

Thread: Christopher Lynn Johnson - Pennsylvania Death Row

  1. #31
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    U.S. Supreme Court upholds death penalty for killer of game commission officer

    The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the death penalty for the convicted killer of a Pennsylvania Game Commission Officer.

    On Monday, the Supreme Court denied Christopher Johnson's petition to vacate his death sentence, which he was given after he was convicted of shooting and killing game commission officer David Grove on the evening of Nov. 11, 2010.

    Grove, who was 31, was investigating a deer-poaching incident when he encountered Johnson near the Gettysburg National Military Park. Johnson fired 15 shots at Grove, and a bullet entered the back of his neck and killed him, said Adams County District Attorney Shawn Wagner.

    Johnson was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death on Oct. 4, 2012. The state Supreme Court upheld Johnson's death sentence last year. And Wagner applauded the U.S. Supreme Court for following suit.

    "I am confident that justice has been properly handed down to officer Grove's killer," Wagner said. "Pennsylvania law calls for the ultimate consequence when someone intentionally kills a law enforcement officer acting in the line of duty."

    The U.S. Supreme Court's denial of Johnson's petition ends his direct appeal of his first degree murder conviction and death sentence, Wagner said.

    If Johnson were to pursue another appeal, he would have to file a Post Conviction Relief Act petition with the Adams County Court of Common Pleas, he said.

    http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/ind...lds_death.html

  2. #32
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    On January 20, 2016, Johnson filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    https://dockets.justia.com/docket/pe...cv00105/105954

  3. #33
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    Execution notices signed for three convicted murderers in Pennsylvania

    HARRISBURG, Pa. – Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel on Wednesday signed Notices of Execution for the following inmates:

    Inmate Name Date of Execution County of Conviction

    Thomas Meadows - March 15, 2016 - Montgomery

    Jeffrey Martin - March 16, 2016 - Greene

    Christopher Johnson - March 18, 2016 - Adams

    The law provides that when the governor does not sign a warrant of execution within the specified time period, the secretary of corrections has 30 days within which to issue a notice of execution, according to a Department of Corrections news release.

    Johnson, 32, was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death for the 2010 murder of Wildlife Conservation Officer David Grove.

    Johnson shot Grove while the wildlife officer was investigating a deer poaching incident in a rural area of Adams County.

    Grove was the first Pennsylvania game warden killed in the line of duty in 95 years, and more than 1,000 mourners attended his funeral.

    http://fox43.com/2016/01/27/executio...-pennsylvania/

  4. #34
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    Stay issued for death-row inmate who killed former Franklin Co. man

    WAYNESBORO, Pa. — A federal court judge has issued a stay of execution for a man who was convicted in the 2012 shooting death of a Pennsylvania Game Commission officer who formerly lived in Waynesboro.

    Christopher L. Johnson, 32, formerly of Fairfield, Pa., was found guilty of first-degree murder and related charges in connection with the fatal shooting of Deputy Wildlife Conservation Officer David Grove on Nov. 11, 2010, in Adams County, Pa.

    Grove was investigating deer poaching when he was killed.

    Johnson was scheduled to die Friday by lethal injection, but a temporary reprieve was anticipated from Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf.

    But the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania intervened first, issuing a stay to give lawyers time to work on Johnson’s habeas-corpus petition.

    “Christopher Johnson received a stay of execution from the U.S. District Court. That put everything on hold,” said Susan McNaughton, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.

    Judge Matthew W. Brann wrote in a March 2 order that Johnson “would not be afforded the opportunity to litigate a meaningfully counseled habeas petition” if executed this month.

    “Therefore, in order to afford not only petitioner that opportunity, but also this court an opportunity to address that petition on the merits, the petitioner’s motion for a stay of execution must be granted,” Brann wrote.

    The U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit set clear precedents governing those kinds of actions, he said.

    Grove, who was 31 when he died, lived in Waynesboro before moving to Fairfield. He attended Grace Academy in Hagerstown.

    Thousands of people attended Grove's funeral and lined the streets of Waynesboro for the procession carrying his body to Green Hill Cemetery.

    The Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed Johnson’s convictions and death sentence on Dec. 30, 2014.

    In February 2015, Wolf requested that the Pennsylvania Senate form a commission to review the death penalty due to his concerns about its costs, flaws and cases in which it was unjust.

    Pennsylvania last executed an inmate in 1999.

    Grove was the first state game commission officer killed in the line of duty since 1915.

    http://www.heraldmailmedia.com/news/...d0771d282.html

  5. #35
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    Prosecutors want Johnson's petition dismissed

    BY VANESSA PELLECHIO
    The Gettysburg Times

    Adams County prosecutors requested the amended post-conviction petition for a Carroll Valley man on death row be dismissed without a hearing, according to a motion filed earlier this month.

    Christopher Johnson, 34, was given the death penalty by a Lancaster jury in Adams County Court on Oct. 4, 2012 after being convicted of first-degree murder in the 2010 shooting death of Pennsylvania Wildlife Conservation Officer David Grove.

    In the eight-page filing from Feb. 8, the prosecution responded to Johnson’s amended Post-Conviction Relief Act (PCRA) petition, stating “none of those claims warrant a hearing.”

    Johnson asked to vacate his sentence and for a new trial because of “ineffective assistance of counsel,” according to his petition.

    Johnson’s attorney Eric Weisbrod of Chambersburg also stated that the sentence was in violation of the United States Constitution’s Eighth Amendment.

    Johnson was represented by Adams County Chief Public Defender Kristin Rice and attorney William Miele during the trial, the petition stated.

    On Nov. 11, 2010, Johnson shot Grove, 31, while the officer stopped him along Schriver Road for a poaching investigation. Prosecutors said Johnson fired 15 shots with the fatal wound coming to the back of the neck.

    The jury also found Johnson guilty of persons not to possess a firearm, firearms not to be carried without a license, and possessing instruments of crime, in addition to other Game Commission offenses.

    “A defendant’s right to a PCRA hearing is far from automatic,” Adams County prosecutors asserted in their motion. “A PCRA court may deny a post-conviction petition without an evidentiary hearing if his claims are without merit on their face and no purpose would be served by further proceedings."

    The PCRA petition alleged “imperfect self-defense” was not included in jury instruction, and would have given jurors the power to convict Johnson of voluntary manslaughter instead.

    “Counsel was ineffective for failing to develop evidence during the penalty phase to support the use of voluntary intoxication,” the petition stated.

    The prosecution noted Johnson’s attorneys “did develop evidence regarding a voluntary intoxication defense,” citing witnesses who testified about the amount of alcohol he allegedly drank that day with a medical toxicologist contacted “to opine on defendant’s blood alcohol content at the time he shot” Grove.

    In October 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Johnson’s petition for writ of certiorari after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed the first-degree murder conviction in December 2014. Two Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices, Max Baer and Debra McCloskey Todd, levied a dissenting opinion on the imposition of the death penalty in the case.

    Also in the PCRA petition, Weisbrod asked for “a stay of execution of sentence.”

    On Feb. 13, 2015, Gov. Tom Wolf imposed a moratorium on the death penalty pending completion of a legislative commission’s study to find any flaws in the system and ways to fix them. As a result, Johnson’s death sentence was temporarily suspended in March 2016. Johnson’s execution was set for March 18, 2016.

    Three people who voluntarily gave up their appeals have been executed in Pennsylvania since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, the Associated Press reported.

    No hearings have been scheduled for Johnson’s case as of Friday, according to online court documents.

    Johnson is currently at State Correctional Institution Greene in Waynesburg, Pa.

    http://www.gettysburgtimes.com/news/...aaf32d44d.html

  6. #36
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    20,875
    Adams man sentenced to death wants new trial

    BY Vanessa Pellechio
    The Gettysburg Times

    A Carroll Valley man sentenced to death for the murder of Pennsylvania Wildlife Conservation Officer David Grove returned to an Adams County courtroom after a decade seeking a new trial and sentencing hearing, according to court officials.

    Christopher Johnson, now 39, appeared in Adams County Court from Monday through Thursday for a hearing on his claims before Lancaster County Senior Judge Joseph C. Madenspacher, according to a status report filed May 6 in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

    Johnson’s motion to recuse all four Adams County Court of Common Pleas judges was granted on Jan. 10, 2019, so the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts reassigned the case to Madenspacher, according to the status report filed by Johnson’s attorney Peter Walker of the Federal Community Defender Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

    “We are certainly opposed to any re-sentence and confident that will not occur,” Adams County District Attorney Brian Sinnett said. “However, we expect more testimony to be needed at a later time and will not have a ruling on this for quite a while.”

    Johnson was given the death penalty by a Lancaster jury in Adams County Court on Oct. 4, 2012, after being convicted of first-degree murder in the 2010 shooting death of Grove.

    On Dec. 17, 2018, Johnson filed an amended petition for writ of habeas corpus and collateral relief, and the prosecution filed an answer and motion to dismiss the amended post-conviction petition on Nov. 17, 2020, according to court filings.

    Walker and Andrew Childers, also of the Federal Community Defender Office, filed a reply to the prosecution’s filing on April 15, 2021, claiming prior counsel was ineffective at trial, among other reasons, and Johnson should be granted “a new trial and/or sentencing hearing.”

    Johnson was represented by Adams County Chief Public Defender Kristin Rice and attorney William Miele during the trial, according to court documents.

    In the reply filing, Johnson’s federal attorneys allege counsel was ineffective for many reasons, ranging from failing to object to the panel of prospective jurors selected from Lancaster County for trial to failing to utilize material impeachment evidence of any agreement with a key witness that was alleged to have been misrepresented at trial.

    Some of Johnson’s arguments centered on the jury pool selected at his trial.

    Johnson’s attorneys alleged trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object to the venire, the panel of prospective jurors, because the Lancaster County jury pool “was still saturated with the highly prejudicial publicity that had necessitated the original change of venire from Adams County,” according to the filing. Johnson’s attorneys wrote in the filing that television stations WGAL, WHP, WHTM, and WPMT all broadcast to both Adams and Lancaster counties.

    One prospective juror was challenged by the prosecution, according to the filing.

    Johnson’s attorneys alleged in the filing the prosecution “used its peremptory strikes in a discriminatory manner to strike an African American on the jury panel,” and appellate counsel was ineffective for bringing it to light that the trial court failed to conduct the proper three-step inquiry under Batson into whether the prosecution’s reasons for striking the juror “were merely pretextual.”

    The prospective juror allegedly withheld a criminal record in the questionnaire, according to the prosecution.

    At Johnson’s trial, Adams County Court of Common Pleas Judge Shawn Wagner was the district attorney at the time and prosecuted the case, along with Montgomery County First Assistant District Attorney Kevin Steele, who is now district attorney in Montgomery County.

    According to the filing, Johnson’s due process rights were violated by the prosecution for “failing to disclose to trial counsel significant impeachment evidence that would have undermined” a key witness’s credibility. Johnson’s attorneys alleged in the filing that the prosecution threatened to charge the key witness with Grove’s murder “if he did not testify as they wanted and created an expectation of leniency in” the individual’s related criminal cases.

    “Additionally, to the extent evidence of this agreement was available to trial counsel, this Court should hold an evidentiary hearing to address trial counsel’s failure to impeach” the key witness “with this evidence,” Johnson’s attorneys asserted in the filing.

    On Nov. 11, 2010, Johnson shot Grove, 31, when the officer stopped him along Schriver Road during a poaching investigation. Prosecutors said Johnson fired 15 shots with the fatal wound hitting the back of the neck.

    The jury also found Johnson guilty of persons not to possess a firearm, firearms not to be carried without a license, and possessing instruments of crime, in addition to other game commission offenses.

    In October 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Johnson’s petition for writ of certiorari after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed the first-degree murder conviction in December 2014. Two Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices, Max Baer and Debra McCloskey Todd, levied a dissenting opinion on the imposition of the death penalty in the case.

    On Feb. 13, 2015, Gov. Tom Wolf imposed a moratorium on the death penalty pending completion of a legislative commission’s study to find any flaws in the system and ways to fix them. As a result, Johnson’s death sentence was temporarily suspended.

    Johnson’s execution was set for March 18, 2016.

    Three people who voluntarily gave up their appeals have been executed in Pennsylvania since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, the Associated Press reported.

    Johnson is incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution at Phoenix in Collegeville, Pa., according to court documents.

    https://www.gettysburgtimes.com/news...f413c8adc.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

Page 4 of 4 FirstFirst ... 234

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •