Missouri carried out its first execution since May 2020 on Tuesday night, killing Ernest Lee Johnson, 61, with a lethal injection at the state prison in Bonne Terre. Gov. Mike Parsons (R) on Monday night had declined pleas to commute Johnson's death sentence, including from Pope Francis and two members of Missouri's congressional delegation. Johnson's final statement, as passed down by the Missouri Department of Corrections, expressed remorse for killing three people during a 1994 convenience story robbery and thanked those who supported him.
Pope Francis "wishes to place before you the simple fact of Mr. Johnson's humanity and the sacredness of all human life," not just his "doubtful intellectual capacity," Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the Vatican's U.S. ambassador, wrote Parsons on Oct 1. Other advocates focused more on Johnson's intellectual acuity.
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