“The power of the executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious, and the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist.”
— Winston Churchill
The Missouri Supreme Court heard oral arguments yesterday (5/25/06) in the case of State of Missouri vs. Johnny A. Johnson (SC86689). Johnson is appealing a first-degre murder conviction and death sentence. From the court’s docket summary:
After Johnny Johnson stayed with friends one night in July 2002 at their home in Valley Park, the friends’ six-year-old daughter disappeared. A witness saw Johnson walking that morning, carrying a little girl on his back. Although Johnson initially told the girl’s mother that he did not know where the child was, he later surrendered himself to police and agreed to go to the police station. Later in the day, Johnson told police he had killed the girl by accident, that her body was in an old glass factory, and where she could be found. After police recovered the girl’s body, they told Johnson it did not look like an accident. He then told them that he had exposed himself to her, and when she refused his advances, he hit her in the head with a brick and threw a boulder onto her, killing her. He told police he then covered her body with rocks and debris. The state charged Johnson with one count each of first-degree murder, armed criminal action, kidnapping and attempted forcible rape. While he was in jail awaiting trial, doctors treated Johnson for anxiety, depression and symptoms of psychosis. Following trial, the jury found Johnson guilty of each count and recommended the death penalty. The court sentenced him to consecutive sentences of death for the murder conviction and life in prison for the remaining convictions. Johnson appeals.
We (Missourinet.com) stream the arguments live (to subscribers) so I wind up listening to a lot of these arguments. Arguments before the state supreme court are nothing like the arguments we see in the movies and on TV. Pretty dry stuff. But this question (AUDIO) (of Johnson’s attorney) by one of the judges caught my attention (Warning: His description of the murder is graphic).
In the interest of fairness, you can download and listen to the full argument (runs almost an hour) but it sounds like Johnson’s attorney is trying to explain how the murder could be “intentional” but not “deliberate.”
“Vernon Lee Evans Jr. — amateur advice columnist and convicted murderer — is scheduled to die next month by lethal injection. He is one of the very few death row inmates to have a blog and, activists say, perhaps the only condemned man worldwide to use a blog to take questions from readers.”
— washingtonpost.com:
In a story titled “Death In A Bottle,” People Magazine (January 6, 2006) gives two pages to the case of James Keown, the Jeff City talk-show host accused of poisoning his wife. Not sure why this case qualifies for the Big Media Treatment but I’m guessing it does/will. Is it the talk radio thing? Poisoned Gatorade? Whatever, I’m guessing it’s not good –from a legal defense perspective– to see your client’s face in People. A bail hearing is set for January 4th.
UPDATE: June 8, 2022 – Not sure how I stumbled upon it but an interesting update (and book review) from 2021.
December 26, 2005 marks the 15th anniversary of the death of Nancy Cruzan. Nancy Cruzan was a 25-year old southwest Missouri woman who was thrown from her car in 1983 when it flipped over. Paramedics found and revived her at leat 15 minutes after the crash. She never fully regained consciousness but did achieve a status that came to be called a “Persistent Vegetative State.” Five years after her accident, her family concluded she would never return to full consciousness. Thus began a long legal battle to have her feeding tube removed so she would die. The Cruzan case became the first “right to die” case to reach the United States Supreme Court, which ruled 5-4 against the family.
Missourinet News Director Bob Priddy interviewed Bill Colby, the Cruzan family lawyer during the ordeal. Runs 30 minutes but it’s damned fine radio. Before the web, an in-depth piece like this would simply have been tucked away in a desk drawer.
I arrived home this evening to find a message on our answering machine from a reporter for the Boston Herald. He said he was doing a story on James Keown who was arrested this morning (here in Jefferson City) for allegedly poisoning his wife with antifreeze in 2004. The reporter called me because smays.com was on James’ blog roll.
I met James eight or nine years ago when he was the assistant program director at KMBZ in Kansas City. I was still doing affiliate relations back then. James seemed like a bright, personable young man. I knew that he was back in Jefferson City but had had no contact with him in recent years. I was linked on his blog because he knew bloggers who knew me.
Once the story broke, it didn’t take reporters long to Google James and discover his blog. Others found it too and quickly began posting (anonymously) comments and some of were…harsh. The comments have been turned off but the blog is still up. The BostonHerald.com story included a link.
Most of today’s 600+ page views at smays.com have come from James’ blog. I suspect it will be a while before we see any new posts. If the charge against Mr. Keown is dismissed or he is tried and acquitted, will he blog his experiences?
Once again I am reminded of how connected we have become.
Timothy Johnston was executed this morning at the state prison in Bonne Terre, Missouri. It had been delayed by appeals based on the argument that Missouri’s method of execution (lethal injection) is cruel and unusual punishment. Johnston seemed intent to prove his defense was true as he writhed on the gurney for what seemed like a minute. But some witnesses thought he was moving before the first drug was administered.
If his death was painful, it couldn’t have been much worse than being beaten and kicked to death which is how Tim dispatched his wife back in 1989.
But let’s assume he did fake the pain, as it were. You’re just seconds from crossing over to The Other Side, hoping you know what awaits but no way to know for sure… and you pretend to be in agonizing pain to…what? Make some kind of political statement?! That takes some real focus.
And having one of the corrections officers lean over and whisper, “Dude, we didn’t give you the shot yet” …would take me out of character.
Our office in Des Moines saw some excitement yesterday. We have two traffic reporters who spend much of their long split-shift day listening to law enforcement officers on the police scanners, picking up information about wrecks and delays and passing details along to our local radio listeners.
Yesterday afternoon, JC Walker and Russ Johnson perked up when their scanners broadcast the voice of a huffing, puffing Des Moines police officer who was chasing (and losing) a suspect on foot just a few blocks from our building. A block from our building. Outside our building. Then, the wheezing officer said the man ran inside 2700 Grand, thats us! JC could no longer sit by, dashed to the lobby, easily spotted the suspect (based on the police description) who was stalking around the lobby like a caged animal and breathing hard himself. JC tried to converse with the man, who, in no mood for chat, darted back outside and took off running again. JC, seeing the cop still far off in the distance, thought quickly and decided to pursue the man himself, ran across a busy Grand Avenue, dodging cars, and tackled the guy in the grass!
JC kept the suspect face-down and subdued until the panting police officer jogged up and handcuffed the guy, who had already tried to surrender to JC. Another officer soon pulled up in a squad car and took the suspect away. We still dont know why the man was being chased. JC, meanwhile, came back inside and calmly did his next traffic report. [Thanks to Matt Kelley]
On March 25, 2002, I posted some thoughts on the movie Monster’s Ball, including a reference to the execution of James Henry Hampton two years previously (I was a media witness). On Thursday I received an email from someone (no name was provided, just initials) identifying herself as Hampton’s granddaughter.
I have just recently learned that I am the granddaughter of James Henry Hampton, a man you saw executed on March 22, 2000, ironically the night of my junior prom. I’ve been searching for information on him for a while, because my family refuses to tell me even his last name or anything about him. I was only told of his first name and my mother informed me the night of my celebration that my real grandfather was being executed. The only leads I have are the online articles I’ve come across. My friend came across your web log and suggested I e-mail you. So I guess I’ll get to the point. Can you please tell me all that you can remember about my grandfather’s execution? Was he hateful or spiteful? Was he scared and lonely? Regretful? I realize that this man was an atrocity to society but this same man’s blood courses through my veins. I’m the only one in my family who apparently has his color features and love for root beer (only thing mom and grandma ever let slip when I ordered it at a restaurant). So please sir, tell me what you can, to help me in my search for my family’s truths. Thank you for your time.
I replied with a description of the execution and a link to a website with more information about her grandfather. I can only wonder at the woman’s curiosity that she would be moved to ask a stranger to “…tell me all that you can remember about my grandfather’s execution.” As we (the official witnesses) waited for Hampton’s execution, I had many thoughts. That this man might have a granddaughter attending her junior prom was not one of them. Another example of Dr. Weinberger’s Small Pieces Loosely Joined.
On Monday Sheryl Crow gave testimony in a case against Ambrose Kappos, 38, a one-time Navy diver charged with stalking the singer during a 16-month period. At one point in Kappos’ nearly two-hour testimony, Assistant District Attorney Christopher Hill asked him if he is a “fan” of the singer. “I don’t think that’s a very good term,” Kappos replied. “Maybe … spiritual twin. … Maybe I’m crazy and delusional. Maybe they need to lock me up.” Uh, yeah. Maybe.