A man is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in Missouri on Tuesday without his daughter present due to her age, NBC News reported.
Kevin Johnson was sentenced to death for the 2005 killing of a Kirkwood, MO police officer. Johnson was 19 at the time he committed the crime, the same age his daughter, Khorry Ramey, is now.
“I’m heartbroken that I won’t be able to be with my dad in his last moments,” Ramey told NBC News. She said that her father “has worked very hard to rehabilitate himself in prison. I pray that [Gov. Mike] Parson will give my dad clemency.”
Missouri law prevents individuals under the age of 21 from attending executions. And, on behalf the Ramey, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit urging the state to allow Ramey to attend her father’s execution.
The plaintiffs argue that prohibiting Ramey from attending the execution is unconstitutional and “illustrates the irrationality” of sentencing, someone, to death prior to their 21st birthday but preventing those under 21 from attending executions.
“I am my dad’s closest living relative and he is mine, other than my baby son,” Ramey told the outlet. “If my dad were dying in the hospital, I would stick by his side and hold his hand, praying until his death.”
But the judge argued that the plaintiffs did not prove the law was unconstitutional, therefore blocking Ramey from attending the execution of her last living parent.
“It’s ironic that Kevin was 19 years old when he committed this crime and they still want to move forward with this execution, but they won’t allow his daughter who’s 19 at this time in because she’s too young,” Johnsons’ lawyer, Shawn Nolan, told reporters Friday.
The Missouri Attorney General’s Office argues that the execution should proceed because “the surviving victims of Johnson’s crimes have waited long enough for justice,” according to NBC News.
Johnson’s execution is set to occur on Tuesday. But because a special prosecutor is arguing that there was “unconstitutional racial discrimination” in Johnson’s conviction, a hearing is scheduled for Monday that could possibly prevent the execution.
An attorney for Ramey, an attorney for Johnson, the Missouri Attorney General, and a Missouri special prosecutor did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Source: Insider.com