Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has Tuesday he would not intervene in the execution of death row inmate Don Johnson.
He said, “After a prayerful and deliberate consideration of Don Johnson‘s request for clemency, and after a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence of the State of Tennessee and will not be intervening.”
On Monday, the U.S.
Supreme Court declined to stop the execution.
He is scheduled to die by lethal injection.
Johnson was convicted of killing his wife, Connie, in 1984 in Memphis. Her body was found outside the Mall of Memphis. A garbage bag had been shoved down her throat and she had injuries on her head. He was 33 at the time and his wife was 30.
Cynthia Vaughn, daughter of the couple, also asked for "Christian forgiveness" in the case.
Johnson has become an elder in the Seventh day Adventist Church, and several Adventist leaders spoke in his behalf.
Johnson was moved to death watch on Tuesday morning shortly after midnight. Death watch is the three-day period before an execution when strict guidelines are implemented to maintain the security and control of the offender and to maintain safe and orderly operations of the prison. During this period, the offender is placed in a cell adjacent to the execution chamber where he or she is under 24-hour observation by a team of correctional officers.
Only those individuals who are on the offender’s official visitation list are allowed to visit the offender during the death watch period. All visits are non-contact until the final day before the execution at which time the warden decides if the offender can have a contact visit.