WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.300 --> 00:00:02.700
- I'm Jessica Washington, a
senior reporter at The Root

2
00:00:02.700 --> 00:00:04.080
and here's what you may not know.

3
00:00:04.080 --> 00:00:05.670
After being denied clemency,

4
00:00:05.670 --> 00:00:08.190
37-year-old Kevin Johnson was executed

5
00:00:08.190 --> 00:00:10.350
by the state of Missouri on Tuesday.

6
00:00:10.350 --> 00:00:12.330
Johnson was the fifth person executed

7
00:00:12.330 --> 00:00:14.010
by the state this month.

8
00:00:14.010 --> 00:00:16.170
His 19-year-old daughter was barred

9
00:00:16.170 --> 00:00:18.150
from her father's final moments

10
00:00:18.150 --> 00:00:20.280
on the grounds that she was too young.

11
00:00:20.280 --> 00:00:23.670
Ironically, her father
was just 19 years old

12
00:00:23.670 --> 00:00:25.800
when he was arrested
and sentenced to death

13
00:00:25.800 --> 00:00:28.020
for the murder of a police officer.

14
00:00:28.020 --> 00:00:30.720
Supporters of Johnson's, who was Black,

15
00:00:30.720 --> 00:00:33.510
say he turned his life around in prison.

16
00:00:33.510 --> 00:00:36.120
Johnson's daughter said that
despite his incarceration

17
00:00:36.120 --> 00:00:37.770
he was a good father.

18
00:00:37.770 --> 00:00:39.930
Her mother died when
she was four years old

19
00:00:39.930 --> 00:00:42.300
and Johnson was the only
parent she had left.

20
00:00:42.300 --> 00:00:44.790
Johnson's attorneys and
supporters also argued

21
00:00:44.790 --> 00:00:47.550
that the prosecutor in this
case, Robert McCulloch,

22
00:00:47.550 --> 00:00:48.900
was racially biased.

23
00:00:48.900 --> 00:00:50.130
- You know, he took it upon himself

24
00:00:50.130 --> 00:00:53.070
to make sure that racism, discrimination,

25
00:00:53.070 --> 00:00:56.865
and all of the ills of
our society, you know,

26
00:00:56.865 --> 00:01:00.237
were well-embedded in his
prosecutorial practices.

27
00:01:01.710 --> 00:01:04.080
- In an interview with
St. Louis Post-Dispatch,

28
00:01:04.080 --> 00:01:05.730
McCulloch denied accusations

29
00:01:05.730 --> 00:01:07.800
that race was a factor in this case.

30
00:01:07.800 --> 00:01:10.860
Nationally, racial differences
in death penalty sentences

31
00:01:10.860 --> 00:01:12.600
are quite noticeable.

32
00:01:12.600 --> 00:01:15.660
Despite making up 13% of the population,

33
00:01:15.660 --> 00:01:20.660
Black Americans represent 34%
of all executions since 1976,

34
00:01:20.910 --> 00:01:23.460
according to the Death
Penalty Information Center.

35
00:01:23.460 --> 00:01:26.760
The larger bias persists
in the race of the victim.

36
00:01:26.760 --> 00:01:30.510
In approximately 75% of all
death penalty executions

37
00:01:30.510 --> 00:01:33.270
since 1976, the victim was white,

38
00:01:33.270 --> 00:01:35.670
far outstripping the
percentage of murder victims

39
00:01:35.670 --> 00:01:37.500
who identified as white.

40
00:01:37.500 --> 00:01:41.070
The courts have time and time
again rejected the argument

41
00:01:41.070 --> 00:01:42.570
that the application of the death penalty

42
00:01:42.570 --> 00:01:44.730
in the United States is racially biased.

43
00:01:44.730 --> 00:01:46.620
And this case was no different.

44
00:01:46.620 --> 00:01:50.010
The Missouri Supreme Court
cited against Johnson's lawyers.

45
00:01:50.010 --> 00:01:51.720
But just looking at cases

46
00:01:51.720 --> 00:01:53.730
like Johnson's and the larger trends

47
00:01:53.730 --> 00:01:56.760
it's hard not to have
some serious reservations

48
00:01:56.760 --> 00:01:59.460
about our country's readiness
to sentence people to death.

49
00:01:59.460 --> 00:02:01.860
For more information about
criminal justice issues,

50
00:02:01.860 --> 00:02:04.983
and other death penalty
cases, check out theroot.com.