Death row prisoner takes his life

“I didn’t shoot him.”

These last words were written on his cell wall by death row prisoner Michael Johnson in his own blood just hours before the state of Texas was going to execute him.

Johnson had always proclaimed his innocence, since being arrested at age 18 for capital murder. But on Sept. 19, after 10 years on death row with his appeals running out, and only 15 hours away from being executed, Johnson slit his throat and killed himself.

His mother, Patricia Johnson, told the Waco Tribune-Herald, “My son killed himself this morning so they couldn’t have the satisfaction of seeing him die.”

She said he had told his sister, Michelle, during a visit on the previous day that he was thinking about killing himself.

“They tried my son for someone else’s deed,” Johnson said. “They had a confession but they ignored it.”

Months before Johnson went to trial, David Vest, the youth who was with Johnson during a gas station robbery and murder, confessed in front of a judge and the district attorney that he, not Johnson, had committed the murder.

This confession was never given to Johnson’s attorneys, as is required by law.

So when Vest changed his story and testified against Johnson, not only did Johnson’s own attorneys not know Vest had already confessed to the murder, but neither did Johnson’s jury. The jury gave Johnson the death penalty. Vest is now out after serving eight years.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice is investigating Johnson’s suicide. The Office of Inspector General, which is the investigative arm of the prison system, is handling the investigation, TDCJ spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said.

“There needs to be an independent investigation of Michael’s suicide, done by those who have a true interest in not only Johnson but in the racist courts that deny the poor any semblance of justice,” Njeri Shakur, an activist with the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, told Workers World.

“Having the prison system investigate is absurd. The questions are not how did he get a razor but why did Michael face an execution if he was innocent. Why do the DAs in his case get off free after violating the law and not turning over exculpatory evidence as is required?”

The Texas prison system apologized to the victim’s family, saying they were so sorry that they were not going to be able to witness an execution.

The Texas prison system leads the country in executions with 377—over one-third of the country’s 1,047 that have been carried out since they resumed in 1976.

Texas has rescued several prisoners from death just so they could be executed later. Seven suicides have been successfully carried out by men on death row.

Thomas Miller-El, who spent almost 20 years on death row here before the Supreme Court sent his case back, reflected on Johnson’s execution from the Dallas County Jail where he is awaiting a new trial.

“Michael was scared to death when he got his last date a couple of years ago. It tore him up. Every time the state sets an execution date, they kill you — mentally, spiritually, and psychologically. Your body may be the only thing left alive. I know this because I have had 10 execution dates,” he told Workers World.