Monday 28 November 2022 06:41 PM Missouri woman, 19, denied emergency motion demanding to be allowed to watch ... trends now
A federal court in Missouri has denied a 19-year-old woman's request to watch her father receive a lethal injection tomorrow, upholding a state law that prevents under 21s from watching executions.
Corionsa Ramey, 19, filed a petition last week with the help of the ACLU arguing the Missouri law was a breach of her First and 14th Amendment rights.
A federal judge said in an order on Friday that disallowing Ramey from watching the execution of her father Kevin Johnson, 37, was not unconstitutional because the state was not treating her 'less favorably than similarly situated people'.
Johnson was sentenced to death for killing a cop in St. Louis in 2005 and is due to be executed on Tuesday November 29.
He fatally shot Missouri police officer William McEntee in a fit of rage after the death of his 12-year-old brother hours earlier.
Judge Brian C. Wimes said later in the judgement that states are able to 'discriminate on the basis of age' without offending the Fourteenth Amendment if the age classification is 'rational'.
Disallowing Corionsa Ramey (left), 19, from watching the execution of Kevin Johnson (right), 37, was not unconstitutional, a federal judge has ruled
Ramey, 19, was two when her father was imprisoned for the fatal shooting and at the age of four witnessed her mother being murdered by an ex-boyfriend
Wimes reiterated the state's initial response to her petition in which it said it sought to prevent 'young adults' from 'witnessing death' and feared that 'young adults may be more inclined to act out in ways that are disruptive to the proceedings'.
They said that could result in a security threat during the execution.
The judge also wrote in the order that he was not satisfied that being unable to witness the execution would cause her 'irreparable harm'.
In an affidavit submitted to the court last Monday Ramey cites the close relationship she developed with her father, who has been in prison since she was two.
She also says that not only did she lose her father to prison, she also witnessed the murder of her mother just two years later, aged only four.
Ramey expressed sorrow at the decision and appealed to the Missouri governor for clemency for her father.
'I'm heartbroken that I won't be able to be with my dad in his last moments,' she said in an ACLU press release.
'My dad is the most important person in my life. He has been there for me my whole life, even though he's been incarcerated. He is a good father, the only parent I have left. He has worked very hard to rehabilitate himself in prison. I pray that Governor Parson will give my dad clemency.'
'We are extremely disappointed in the decision upholding this irrational and illogical law, which only serves to gratuitously punish Ms. Ramey,' said Corene Kendrick, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union National Prison Project.
'Compounding her pain and grief by barring her from being with her father will do nothing to provide closure or healing to anyone else.
'The State of Missouri can still do right by Ms. Ramey if the Governor grants her father clemency. If 19 is not old enough to witness an execution, then the state should spare Mr. Johnson's life for what he did when he was 19,' she added.
Judge Brian C. Wimes denied the ACLU petition that Ramey should be allowed to watch the execution in an order last Friday
The order denying Ramey access was written by US district court judge Brian C. Wimes
A photo provided by the ACLU shows Corionsa 'Khorry' Ramey (left), 19, introducing her newborn son to her father Kevin Johnson (right) in prison last month
Ramey (right) has appealed to a federal court in Kansas City for permission to view the execution of her father Johnson (left) by lethal injection
In her appeal to the federal court in Kansas City Johnson's daughter
