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A drug trafficker on death row over his links to seven Virginia murders in 1992 was executed Thursday night in Indiana after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on his coronavirus diagnosis paved the way for his death, according to reports.
“I’m fine. I’m at peace,” Corey Johnson, 52, said before being put to death, according to the Associated Press.
“I’m fine. I’m at peace.”
Johnson was tied to a stretcher and injected with lethal doses of pentobarbital, according to Reuters.
Before his final comments, Johnson said he was “sorry for my crimes”, that he was “not the same man as me” and that he wanted the slain victims called back.
LAST WORDS FROM DEATH LINE DETAILS
He also thanked his minister and his lawyer, the AP reported, and said his last meal of pizza and a strawberry milkshake was “wonderful”, but added that he had not gotten them. “jelly-filled donuts” he wanted.
Earlier Thursday evening, the United States Supreme Court paved the way for Johnson’s execution – one of the last two executions planned by the Trump administration.
The federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indonesia is seen on August 28, 2020 (Associated Press)
The high court rejected a lower court ruling that the executions should be postponed because the two death row inmates suffered from the coronavirus.
The other convict, Dustin Higgs, was due to be executed Friday night following the court ruling, Reuters reported.
U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan on Tuesday ordered the executions of Johnson and Higgs to be postponed until at least March 16 to give the two men time to recover from the coronavirus.
The judge had ruled that the virus could cause inordinate suffering during their executions because of their lungs damaged by the coronavirus, according to Reuters.
But in a 2-1 decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned Chutkan’s stay, saying death row inmates were not guaranteed “a painless death.”
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Johnson was convicted of the murder of seven people in Virginia in 1992 as part of a drug operation. His lawyers have argued that he should have been spared due to an intellectual disability, but both the U.S. 4th Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court rejected that argument, Reuters reported.
Higgs was convicted of overseeing the kidnapping and murder of three women in Maryland in 1996, but did not kill anyone himself, prompting his lawyers to say he should be spared.
The Trump administration resumed federal executions last year after a 17-year hiatus, but the new Biden administration is expected to pursue the abolition of the death penalty, Reuters reported.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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