Nineteen-year-old Khorry Ramey hasn’t seen her father since she was just two years old. Now, he’s facing execution by the state of Missouri. According to The Associated Press, the Supreme Court is reviewing his daughter’s request to witness his last moments despite being below the age limit to view executions.
Kevin Johnson, 37, was convicted for the murder of a police officer in 2005. He was 19 when he was served an arrest warrant for violating probation. He sent his younger brother next door to alert his family but the boy collapsed from a seizure. Johnson claimed Officer William McEntee prevented his mother from providing aid and his brother died shortly after. The report says when Johnson saw McEntee again that evening, he shot him dead.
Johnson’s attorneys have fought to spare his life arguing he had a history of mental illness. Appeals to halt the execution are currently pending - and so is a court filing from the ACLU advocating for his daughter’s ability to be there if the execution is to be carried out.
“If my father were dying in the hospital, I would sit by his bed holding his hand and praying for him until his death, both as a source of support for him, and as a support for me as a necessary part of my grieving process and for my peace of mind,” Ramey said via AP News.
Read more about the filing from AP News:
On Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union filed an emergency motion with a federal court in Kansas City. The ACLU’s court filing said the law barring under 21s serves no safety purpose and violates Ramey’s Constitutional rights.
ACLU attorney Anthony Rothert said if Ramey can’t attend the execution it will cause her “irreparable harm.”
Meanwhile, Johnson’s lawyers have filed appeals seeking to halt the execution. They don’t challenge his guilt but claim racism played a role in the decision to seek the death penalty, and in the jury’s decision to sentence him to die. Johnson is Black and McEntee was white.
What else can be more convincing to abolish the death penalty?
Consider how Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey put a pause on Kenneth Eugene’s execution because they failed for a third time to inject him with the lethal cocktail. Imagine anticipating the government ordered murder of your loved one not once, but three times. According to AP, 16 people have been executed this year. Some still maintained their innocence due to conflicting evidence in their cases.
The Eighth Amendment offers almost no protection at all when some states have normalized the death penalty as something other than cruel and unusual.
Johnson’s execution date is set for Nov. 29. Ramey only has a few days after Thanksgiving to see her father one last time.