100th prisoner executed in Houston

Photo: John Axford

To protest the horrific milestone of the 100th person from Harris County (Houston) being executed on July 24, abolitionists took their outrage to the home of Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal. A press conference featured speakers from the Oct. 27 March to Stop Executions committee, the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, the Harris County Green Party, the Nation of Islam and the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. The state had put African American Lonnie Johnson to death after late appeals failed to stop his execution. Johnson claimed until the last minute that he was picked up by two white youth after his car broke down and “the only difference from me and James Byrd is that I lived to tell about it.” He claimed the youth pulled a gun and a knife on him, beat him up, urinated on him and used the N word. If Harris County were a state it would be second behind the state of Texas in the number of people it has had put to death. Texas will hit its 400th execution on Aug. 22.

—Gloria Rubac