US executes Virginia gang killer despite COVID-19 infection
Terre Haute (US): The US government executed a drug trafficker Thursday in spite of convicted man suffering from COVID-19. Corey Johnson, 52, was the 12th inmate put to death Thursday at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. This is the 12th death penalty handed out, since the Trump administration restarted executions following a 17-year hiatus. Corey Johnson was convicted for his involvement in a series of slayings in Virginia’s capital city in 1992. Even though his lawyers claimed that the lethal injection would cause excruciating pain due to lung damage for COVID-19 infection, there was no respite. He was pronounced dead at 11.34pm (local time).
When he was asked if he had any last words, Johnson appeared surprised and distracted. He focused on a room to his left designated for members of his family. Still, glancing around, he responded to the question, “No. I’m OK.” Several seconds later, he said softly while gazing intently at same room, “Love you.”
Johnson’s execution and Friday’s scheduled execution of Dustin Higgs are the last before next week’s inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. Both inmates contracted COVID-19 and won temporary stays of execution this week for that reason, only for higher courts to allow the lethal injections to move forward.
Johnson was implicated in one of the worst bursts of gang violence Richmond had ever seen, with 11 people killed in a 45-day period. He and two other members of the Newtowne gang were sentenced to death under a federal law that targets large-scale drug traffickers.
In their clemency petition, Johnson’s lawyers asked President Donald Trump to commute his death sentence to life in prison. They described a traumatic childhood in which he was physically abused by his drug-addicted mother and her boyfriends.
In a final statement provided by his attorneys, Johnson said he was ‘sorry for my crimes’. He said he wanted the victims to be remembered. He said the pizza and strawberry shake he ate and drank before the execution ‘were wonderful’. However, he didn’t get the doughnuts he wanted. He also thanked his minister and lawyer. “I am okay,” he said in the statement. “I am at peace.”
In a statement, Johnsons lawyers said the government executed a person ‘with an intellectual disability, in stark violation of the Constitution and federal law’. They vehemently denied he had the mental capacity to be a so-called drug kingpin.