The Naked Truth/Jamala Rogers
Finding New Allies for an Old Fight
The state of Missouri is still smug from the recent execution of Kevin Johnson. The states that still engage in this barbaric practice relish such authority to legally lynch Black people. This particular case came with some valuable lessons and a couple of unexpected outcomes. The execution of Kevin Johnson radicalized new soldiers in the fight for the abolition of the death penalty. The execution moved a U.S. Supreme Court Justice out of the shadows.
Kevin Johnson was shamelessly executed by the State of Missouri. KJ’s was not a case of wrongful conviction; he took full responsibility for his actions on July 5, 2005. He responded in uncontrollable rage at the negligence of police officers to his young brother in cardiac distress. Kevin took his anger out on white Kirkwood cop William McEntee. For taking McEntee’s life, KJ had to pay with his own. No police have ever been held accountable for the death of young Joseph “Bam Bam” Long.
A groundswell of support led to media attention around the globe, including coverage in Ukrainian news. It spurred the participation of groups and individuals not counted as the usual suspects. Many young people of color got involved in Kevin’s case. The unwavering momentum took the case right up to the benches of both the Missouri and the U.S. Supreme Courts.
One of the compelling features of Kevin’s case was the personal involvement of Bob McCullough, the notorious prosecutor at the time, who was often accused of being judicially heavy-handed against defendants accused of killing cops. McCullough’s father, a St. Louis police officer, was killed in the line of duty by a Black man.
Many a light has been shone on the openly racist and biased practices of McCullough. It was a motion of this kind of racial discrimination tactics that made its way to the Missouri Supreme Court. Kevin’s legal team and a special prosecutor appointed by a circuit judge both motioned for a stay of execution. Surprisingly, the state’s high court agreed to hear oral arguments at the eleventh hour.
Special prosecutor Edward Keenan found evidence that McCullough treated Johnson and other Black defendants accused of killing police officers differently than a white defendant accused of the same crime. McCullough never sought the death penalty in the case of Trenton Forster. Instead, Forster received life without the possibility of parole — exactly what the community was asking for KJ. Keenan also alleged that the McCullough team deliberately struck African Americans for Kevin’s jury pool. Again, similar allegations were made for years while McCullough was county prosecutor.
Neither court lost time in denying the stay but something very curious happened the day after Kevin’s execution — something I’ve never seen happen in all the years of my abolition work. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson issued an explanation for her minority dissent, an action unprecedented and unnecessary by a justice. Jackson, an African American, is the newest justice on SCOTUS.
When I first read the 4-page dissent by Justice Jackson, I thought I was misunderstanding the legalese language. I read it several times until the criticism of the Missouri Supreme Court finally came into focus. Justice Jackson took notice of the fact that the state refused to follow its own law that gives prosecutors a post-conviction process to review the legality of a conviction.
Justice Jackson stated that Missouri “turned this straightforward procedural statute on its head.” If the hearing was held, “new evidence relating to the trial prosecutor’s racially biased practices and racially insensitive remarks” could’ve been revealed. In short, she called out Missouri’s racist court practices.
The legal opinion of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was a precious gift to the Missouri abolition movement. In its dogged and unapologetic addiction to kill, this wicked system of oppression unwittingly helped to give a lift to the movement for racial justice. With this legal boost and new, enthusiastic allies, there is renewed commitment to end the unjust practice of executions in Missouri.
