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Missouri to Execute Man Despite Evidence of 'Intellectual Disability’

© AP Photo / FileA lawsuit filed on behalf of 21 Oklahoma death row inmates on Wednesday, June 25, 2014, seeks to halt any attempt to execute them using the state's current lethal injection protocols, which it claims presents a risk of severe pain and suffering.
A lawsuit filed on behalf of 21 Oklahoma death row inmates on Wednesday, June 25, 2014, seeks to halt any attempt to execute them using the state's current lethal injection protocols, which it claims presents a risk of severe pain and suffering. - Sputnik International
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Amnesty International said that US citizen Ernest Lee Johnson, convicted of committing a triple homicide in 1994, will be executed in the state of Missouri despite suffering intellectual disability.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — US citizen Ernest Lee Johnson, convicted of committing a triple homicide in 1994, will be executed by lethal injection in the state of Missouri despite suffering intellectual disability, a US advocacy group said in a press release.

"The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment," Amnesty International USA Executive Director Steven Hawkins stated on Tuesday. "It’s even more outrageous when used against someone with strong evidence of an intellectual disability."

In February 1994, Johnson robbed a convenience store driven by his addiction to crack cocaine. He killed three people during the robbery using a hammer, a screw driver and a gun.

This Oct. 9, 2012 file photo show the lethal injection chamber of the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls. Attorney General Marty Jackley has asked South Dakota court officials to set a spring execution date for Rodney Berget, convicted and sentenced to death for the April 2011 killing of Sioux Falls prison guard Ronald Johnson. - Sputnik International
Missouri Executes Mentally Ill Black Man Convicted by All-White Jury
Amnesty International USA emphasized that Johnson suffered two head injuries as a child and struggled in school. Moreover, he was diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome associated with impaired intellectual functioning.

On Monday, the Missouri Supreme Court turned down without an explanation Johnson’s request to appoint a judge to consider evidence that he is intellectually disabled, in which case it would be unconstitutional to execute him.

He is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday evening.

"Johnson’s case highlights just how broken the capital punishment system is in the United States," Hawkins said.

The United States has executed 25 people in 2015, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

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