Second Death Row Inmate Federally Executed This Week After Appeals Fail

The second federal execution of this week was carried out late last night. Corey Johnson was convicted on seven counts of capitol murder in 1993 as part of a “large drug-trafficking conspiracy” based in Richmond, Virginia. Similar to other recent execution cases, his lawyers tried to commute his sentence and sought clemency from President Trump. They argued Johnson’s IQ of 69 made him ineligible to be put to death since he was “intellectually disabled.” Johnson was also recovering from Covid-19 which, his lawyers said paired with a lethal injection would be cruel and unusual punishment. Their efforts failed and Johnson was officially declared dead at 11:34 p.m. He’s the 19th person to be federally executed since August after a 17-year hiatus. A 20th inmate, Dustin Higgs, who also has the coronavirus, is scheduled to die today, as well. As he prepares to take office in just a few days, President-elect Joe Biden has sworn to abolish the death penalty. Nearly 40 members of Congress support him.