World News | US Executes Virginia Gang Killer Despite COVID-19 Infection

Terre Haute (US), Jan 15 (AP) The US government executed a drug trafficker for his involvement in a series of slayings in Virginias capital city in 1992, despite claims by his lawyers that the lethal injection would cause excruciating pain due to lung damage from his recent COVID-19 infection.

Corey Johnson, 52, was the 12th inmate put to death Thursday at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, since the Trump administration restarted federal executions following a 17-year hiatus.

He was pronounced dead at 11:34 p.m.

When he was asked if he had any last words, Johnson appeared surprised and distracted, focusing on a room to his left designated for members of his family. Still, glancing around, he responded to the question, “No. Im OK.”

Several seconds later, he said softly while gazing intently at same room, “Love you.”

Johnsons execution and Fridays scheduled execution of Dustin Higgs are the last before next weeks inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, who opposes the federal death penalty and has signalled hell end its use. Both inmates contracted COVID-19 and won temporary stays of execution this week for that reason, only for higher courts to allow the lethal injections to move forward.

Lawyers have previously argued the lethal injections of pentobarbital caused flash pulmonary edema, where fluid rapidly fills the lungs, sparking sensations akin to drowning. The new claim was that fluid would rush into the inmates COVID-damaged lungs immediately while they were still conscious.

Johnson was implicated in one of the worst bursts of gang violence Richmond had ever seen, with 11 people killed in a 45-day period. He and two other members of the Newtowne gang were sentenced to death under a federal law that targets large-scale drug traffickers.

In their clemency petition, Johnsons lawyers asked President Donald Trump to commute his death sentence to life in prison. They described a traumatic childhood in which he was physically abused by his drug-addicted mother and her boyfriends, abandoned at age 13, then shuffled between residential and institutional facilities until he aged out of the foster care system. They cited numerous childhood IQ tests discovered after he was sentenced that place him in the mentally disabled category and say testing during his time in prison shows he can read and write at only an elementary school level.

In a final statement provided by his attorneys, Johnson said he was “sorry for my crimes” and said he wanted the victims to be remembered. He said the pizza and strawberry shake he ate and drank before the execution “were wonderful” but he didnt get doughnuts he wanted. He also thanked his minister and lawyer.

“I am okay,” he said in the statement. “I am at peace.”

In a statement, Johnsons lawyers said the government executed a person “with an intellectual disability, in stark violation of the Constitution and federal law” and vehemently denied he had the mental capacity to be a so-called drug kingpin.

“The governments arbitrary rush to execute Mr. Johnson, who was categorically ineligible for execution due to his significant impairments, rested on procedural technicalities rather than any serious dispute that he was intellectually disabled,” the attorneys, Donald Salzman and Ronald Tabak, said.

Government filings have spelled Johnson's name “Cory,” but his lawyers say he spells it “Corey.”

Richard Benedict, who was Johnson's special education teacher at a New York school for emotionally troubled kids, said Johnson was hyperactive, anxious and reading and writing at a second- or third-grade level when he was 16 and 17.

“I had to have someone walk him to the bathroom because he just couldnt get back to the classroom,” Benedict said.

Prosecutors, however, said Johnson had not shown that he was mentally disabled.

“While rejecting that he has intellectual disabilities that preclude his death sentences, courts have repeatedly and correctly concluded that Johnson's seven murders were planned to advance his drug trafficking and were not impulsive acts by someone incapable of making calculated judgments, and are therefore eligible for the death penalty,” prosecutors argue in court documents.

A defense psychologist testified during the trial that Johnson's IQ was measured at 77, above the threshold score of 75 then needed to label someone as intellectually disabled. Johnson's appellate lawyers say that psychologist was not an expert in intellectual disability and relied on standards that are now outdated. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)