O'FALLON, Mo.—A Missouri man who killed a police officer still faces execution later this month after a judge denied a special prosecutor’s request to halt the death sentence.
Kevin Johnson is scheduled to die by injection on Nov. 29. The 37-year-old killed Kirkwood, Missouri, Police Officer William McEntee in 2005.
Last month, St. Louis Circuit Judge Mary Elizabeth Ott appointed a special prosecutor to review the case. The special prosecutor, E.E. Keenan, filed a motion Tuesday night to vacate the death sentence.
But in a ruling Wednesday, Ott denied the request. The two-sentence order didn’t state why.
“We are analyzing our options and intend to appeal if we cannot obtain relief in the circuit court,” Keenan said in an email on Thursday. “Our hearts go out to everyone affected by these horrible events, particularly the family of Sgt. McEntee and the law enforcement community.”
Johnson’s lawyers have asked the courts to intervene for other reasons, including a history of mental illness and his age—19—at the time of the crime. Courts have increasingly moved away from sentencing teen offenders to death since the Supreme Court in 2005 banned the execution of offenders who were younger than 18 at the time of their crime.
The Supreme Court also is weighing a request for a stay of execution. In a response filed Wednesday, the Missouri Attorney General’s Office stated there were no grounds for court intervention.
“The surviving victims of Johnson’s crimes have waited long enough for justice, and every day longer that they must wait is a day they are denied the chance to finally make peace with their loss,” the state petition stated.
McEntee, a husband and father of three, was among the police officers sent to Johnson’s home on July 5, 2005, to serve a warrant for his arrest. Johnson was on probation for assaulting his girlfriend, and police believed he had violated probation.
Johnson saw officers arrive and awoke his 12-year-old brother, Joseph “Bam Bam” Long, who ran next door to their grandmother’s house. Once there, the boy, who suffered from a congenital heart defect, collapsed and began having a seizure.
Johnson testified at trial that McEntee kept his mother from entering the house to aid his brother, who died a short time later at a hospital.
Later that evening, McEntee returned to the neighborhood to check on unrelated reports of fireworks being shot off. That’s when he encountered Johnson.
Johnson pulled a gun and shot the officer. He then approached the wounded, kneeling officer and shot him again, killing him.
The execution would be the first of three in the coming months in Missouri. The state plans to execute convicted killers Scott McLaughlin on Jan. 3 and Leonard Taylor on Feb. 7.
