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Missouri executes Kevin Johnson Tuesday night despite last-minute appeal

Kevin Johnson.jpg
Posted at 8:08 PM, Nov 29, 2022
and last updated 2022-11-30 11:19:12-05

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — With his final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court denied, the State of Missouri carried out the execution of Kevin Johnson Tuesday night, the Associated Press reports.

Johnson died at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, Missouri, by way of lethal ejection.

A jury convicted Johnson, 37, for shooting and killing William McEntee, a Kirkland, Missouri, police officer in 2005.

Late Monday night, the Missouri Supreme Court denied a motion from Johnson's legal team aiming to block the execution.

Johnson's team argued that Johnson got the death penalty because he was Black, among other things.

On Tuesday afternoon, Johnson's lawyers filed another emergency motion with the U.S. Supreme Court attempting to block the execution.

Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson were the two justices who would've favored blocking the execution.

Late Tuesday evening, SCOTUS denied the motion, making way for Missouri to carry out the execution on Johnson.