Brief filed for Missouri death row inmate, cites 8th Amendment

A brief has just been filed with the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of Missouri death row inmate Ernest Lee Johnson.

Johnson has been on death row for the past 20 years after his conviction for a triple murder on Ballenger Lane in north Columbia.

The brief cites the Eighth Amendment, specifically that the injection would impose “cruel and unusual punishment” on Johnson.

The attorneys have consulted health professionals in the case who have said the lethal injection would cause severe, painful seizures for Johnson.

In 2008, doctors removed part of a brain tumor found in Johnson that year.

Scar tissue and some of the remaining tumor could cause seizure’s with Missouri’s use of midazolam and pentobarbital in lethal injections.

His attorneys have requested use of the gas chamber instead.

Federal law requires death row inmates to claim why an alternative method of execution would be better.

District judge Greg Kays said since the gas chamber, the only other legal form of execution in Missouri, isn’t readily available, Johnson can’t claim it’s a feasible alternative.

Additionally, the state has said there’s no proof the gas chamber would do any less harm to Johnson.

The latest brief counters this, saying they only have to prove the harm the state’s preferred method would do.

Johnson’s lawyers tried several times to stop the execution scheduled to take place in early November.

Both the Missouri District Court and the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected that argument.

The U.S. Supreme Court stepped in and halted the execution, ruling that 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals needed to reconsider part of the case.

The attorney general’s office has until Dec. 21 to file a response and oral arguments are expected to happen sometime in January.