Washington (AFP) – A man who pleaded guilty to killing a convenience store worker by setting her on fire was put to death in Texas on Tuesday in the second of three executions to be carried out in the United States this week. Matthew Johnson, 49, was executed by lethal injection at the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville and pronounced dead at 6:53 pm local time (2353 GMT).
Johnson was sentenced to death for the 2012 murder of Nancy Harris, a 76-year-old grandmother. He admitted at trial to pouring lighter fluid on Harris and setting her alight during an early morning robbery of a store in Garland, Texas. Harris suffered severe burns and was taken off life support five days later.
In his final statement, Johnson thanked God and asked for forgiveness from the victim’s family, saying, “I never meant to hurt her.” He also apologized to his wife and asked for her forgiveness, along with the forgiveness of their three daughters. “Just know that it’s nothing that y’all did,” he said to his family. “I made wrong choices, I’ve made wrong decisions, and now I pay the consequences.”
Johnson’s execution was scheduled to take place just hours after the midwestern state of Indiana carried out its second execution since 2009. Benjamin Ritchie, 45, was put to death by lethal injection overnight at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City for the 2000 murder of officer Bill Toney, the Indiana Department of Correction said in a statement. Toney, a father of two, was shot to death after pursuing a van that had been stolen by Ritchie and another man from a gas station in the town of Beech Grove.
The other execution scheduled this week is in the southern state of Tennessee. Oscar Smith, 75, is to be put to death by lethal injection on Thursday for the 1989 shooting and stabbing murders of his estranged wife, Judy Smith, and her two sons, Chad and Jason Burnett.
There have been 18 executions in the United States this year: 14 by lethal injection, two by firing squad, and two using nitrogen gas. The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 U.S. states, while three others—California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania—have moratoriums in place. President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment and called on his first day in office for an expansion of its use “for the vilest crimes.”
© 2024 AFP
