The 52-year-old man was sentenced to death for multiple crimes committed in Virginia in 1992 linked to drug trafficking. He was pronounced dead at 11:34 p.m. Thursday.
“I’m fine, I’m at peace,” “I mean I’m not the same man I was,” said Corey Johnson, in his final confession before being executed by the U.S. government on Thursday. In his last words he also apologized for his crimes.
The 52-year-old man was sentenced to death for multiple crimes committed in the state of Virginia in 1992 linked to drug trafficking.
Johnson was pronounced dead at 11:34 p.m., after being placed on a stretcher and given lethal injections. His lawyers asked the court to suspend the execution arguing that the pentobartbital that would be applied to him would affect his lungs weakened by a recent Covid-19 infection.
In a statement, they also noted that the government executed a person “with an intellectual disability” and denied that he had the mental capacity to be a drug lord, AP reporter Mike Balsamo told via Twitter.
Read also: United States executes Lisa Montgomery, who killed a pregnant woman to steal her baby
“I want to say I’m sorry for my crimes. I wanted to say this to relatives who were victimized by my actions and I want those names remembered. I would have apologized earlier, but I didn’t know how sorry I was. I hope they find peace.”, Johnson added.
Corey Johnson, who died at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, also talked about his last meal and threw an ironic rebuke.
“The pizza and strawberry smoothie were wonderful, but I didn’t have the donuts stuffed with gelatin. What happened? That should be fixed.”, He added.
The agency in AP noted that the man was executed despite claims by his lawyers that the lethal injection could cause him unbearable pain due to lung damage caused by COVID-19.
CONTINUE READING: Lisa Montgomery: She killed a pregnant woman and is the first woman to be executed in the United States since 1953
The Supreme Court dismissed his lawyers’ appeal and gave the green light to Corey Johnson’s execution for his crimes.
Jonhson also sent a message to his family. “I always loved her and her love has made me real. On the streets I was looking for shortcuts, I had good role models, but I was looking sideways … I was blind and I was stupid. I’m not the same man I was.”
He also thanked the “Chaplain” and Don, his lawyer. “Thanks to my legal team. Don has been more than a lawyer, he has become a friend. I am grateful to my minister. I am fine. I am at peace,” he concluded. Minutes later he was executed.
This is the second execution the United States has carried out in a week. Wednesday Lisa Montgomery, 52, became the first federal execution of a woman in nearly 70 years
Montgomery had murdered a pregnant woman to steal her baby in 2004. She was executed at the Terre Haute Federal Penitentiary in the midwestern state of Indiana at 01:31 (06:31 GMT), it said in a statement the Department of Justice.