Missouri to execute inmate who killed 3 during ’94 robbery

By JIM SALTER
Associated Press

The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a request that it stop the planned execution of Ernest Johnson, clearing the way for the Missouri man to die by injection. Sixty-one-year-old Johnson was convicted of killing three convenience store workers during a closing-time robbery nearly 28 years ago. He was scheduled for execution Tuesday evening at the state prison in Bonne Terre, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of St. Louis. It would be the seventh U.S. execution this year. Johnson’s attorney, Jeremy Weis, says executing Johnson would violate the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits executing intellectually disabled people.