Kevin Johnson Was Murdered by a Racist Justice System
The St Louis County prosecutor pursued a death sentence for Kevin Johnson before calling for a retrial due to the “unconstitutional racial bias” in the case. But Missouri executed him anyway — killing a black man without even a semblance of due process.
Kevin Johnson was executed in late November 2022 for the 2005 murder of police sergeant William McEntee. (Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty)
Kevin Johnson should have lived to see the New Year. He might have, if the St Louis County prosecutor — the same office that had pursued the death sentence for Johnson — had filed its motion to vacate his conviction even days earlier.
It was August 24, 2022, when Kevin Johnson learned that he had ninety-seven more days to live. The Missouri Supreme Court had just issued his warrant of execution, scheduled for November 29, 2022. That day, Johnson wrote in his journal, “My future seemed clear now that there was no more maybes and what ifs. . . . The sun was hitting my face hard and I enjoyed every moment of it as I wondered if this would be my last time being able to feel it.”
Kevin Johnson was pronounced dead at 7:40 p.m. on November 29, 2022. He was executed by the state of Missouri for the 2005 murder of police sergeant William McEntee.
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