Bob Holden: Governor Parson, halt the unconstitutional execution of Ernest Johnson
In principle, l support capital punishment. During my time as governor of Missouri, 20 men were executed.
I also realize, however, there are unique occasions when the people of our state are wisely served by the governor exercising the office’s clemency powers. The scheduled Oct. 5 execution of Ernest Johnson, I believe, is one such instance.
A review of pertinent documents has prompted me to concur with advocates that Johnson certainly has intellectually and developmentally disabilities or IDD, and thus is constitutionally barred from execution by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Atkins v. Virginia. That’s why I privately submitted a letter to Gov. Mike Parson and now join others publicly, only because he has not yet decided to intervene.
As one of just a few living people who understand the multiple pressures of the office, I am also compelled by conscience and fidelity to democracy to respectfully urge the governor to stay the execution and commute Johnson’s death sentence to life without the possibility of parole — or at least convene a board of inquiry of mental health professionals who are neither advocates for nor against the death penalty to determine his level of disability.
During my time in public office, I too had to consider difficult situations of mental conditions and the death penalty. In July 2001, I signed into law legislation passed by a divided legislature (a Republican-majority state Senate and Democratic-majority state House) that included a measure to ban the death sentence for people with IDD, then termed “mental retardation.” Life without parole became the most severe consequence for such individuals convicted of murder.
The U.S. Supreme Court noted the next year in their Atkins decision that Missouri’s enactment of this law meant a majority of states had thus done so, helping demonstrate an “evolving standard of decency” had developed nationally to recognize the practice as cruel and unusual punishment. Atkins made people with IDD categorically ineligible for the death penalty.
We as a people should memorialize all who have been murdered in our communities, including Mary Bratcher, Fred Jones and Mable Scruggs, whom Johnson was convicted of brutally killing in a Columbia Casey’s convenience store in 1994. As a society and government, we should do all we can to support their grieving loved ones and all others who have suffered such a tragic loss of life.
No sensible person, including me, is proposing freedom for Johnson, who I believe would be a good candidate for clemency and resentencing to life without parole. He’s lived in the honor dorm at the Potosi Correctional Center for years because of his proven ability to comply with prison rules without any significant conduct violations. Before the murders, Johnson was convicted solely of nonviolent offenses.
Johnson has a paper trail recorded by mental health professionals since his childhood indicating he is intellectually disabled. Courts and experts have widely defined the condition by having three factors present: impaired intellectual functioning as measured by IQ, impaired adaptive living skills in at least two of about a dozen different areas, and onset of the disability before age 18. Johnson’s history and the best available evidence are consistent with these factors, affirming his IDD standing.
Reports note that in six full-scale IQ tests, beginning at age 8 and over the next three decades, he scored below the threshold for IDD five times. He reportedly possesses communication skills less than those of a typical 5-year-old, repeated second, third and ninth grades (after which he dropped out of school) and was in special education classes from third through eight grades.
His brain development may well have been stymied, one report notes, by fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Throughout her pregnancy with Johnson, his mother consumed a pint of hard liquor daily and frequently took sedatives.
None of this excuses what Johnson did. But if our state is to be guided by the rule of law, we must temper our understandable anger with reason and compassion for the most vulnerable among us, including Ernest Johnson. We are grateful that the Missouri Supreme Court chose last week to review the extensive evidence of his IDD condition. If the court declines to intervene, we ask Gov. Parson to exercise clemency.
Bob Holden served as the 53rd governor of Missouri.