Progressive News Network with Jeanine Molloff, Brook Hines and Rick Spisak

This week on Progressive News Network, Jeanine will discuss the gross miscarriage of justice taking place in Missouri right now. Death Row inmate Ernest Johnson is scheduled to be executed this Tuesday by lethal injection. He was convicted of three grisly murders, yet the evidence also implicates an accomplice who was at the scene as well. That accomplice took a deal with the prosecutor to testify against Ernest Johnson in return for being spared the death penalty. 

What has concerned a multitude of advocacy groups is the plain fact that Ernest Johnson is IDD (Intellectually & Developmentally Disabled). Some disability experts estimate his communication skills at the level of a 5-year-old child. The Supreme Court ruled those persons with intellectual disabilities are to be spared the death penalty, yet the Missouri Supreme Court, the prosecutors in the case, and the community at large don't care. 

One last thing--Ernest Johnson is a black man and the murder victims were white. Add to this toxic stew that this took place in rural Missouri---and you have a perfect storm for a lynch mob mentality. 

Governor Mike Parson has the power to set aside the execution and relinquish Ernest to life in prison, and members of the Baptist Church, (of which Parson is a member) are pleading for compassion. Governor Parson has not responded to date. 

Come join us. 

Brook Hines examines "How Democracy Ends." Go on over to The Lefty Lounge on Anchor for the rest of the story. 

CITATIONS
Dr. Vinay Prasad on 'How Democracy Ends" 
Video version of essay