A Missouri death row inmate who’d been convicted of a triple murder nearly 30 years ago has his execution date set for October 5.
The State Supreme Court announced the execution of Ernest Lee Johnson will be carried out at the Bonne Terre Prison but rejected the inmate’s wish to be killed by firing squad.
The method is not allowed under Missouri law. The 60-year-old’s lawyer argued that the lethal injection drugs could trigger seizures and therefore violates the inmate’s Eighth Amendment right due to his epilepsy condition and a brain tumor.
“We should not countenance the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment simply for the sake of expediency,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a dissent to the Supreme Court.
“That is what the Eighth Circuit’s decision has done. Because this Court chooses to stand idly by, I respectfully dissent.”
Johnson was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder in connection with the 1994 slayings of Mary Bratcher, Mable Scruggs, and Fred Jones all of whom were workers at Casey’s convenience store and were slaughtered with a hammer.
