Thank you all for continuing to amplify Marcellus Williams. As you have been such committed supporters we wanted to share with you another petition for death row prisoner, Ernest Lee Johnson.

Ernest was convicted of murder in 1994. In the past 26 years of appeals, courts have upheld his conviction but overturned the death sentences and granted new penalty phases due to errors in presentation of evidence about Johnson’s intellectual/developmental disability (I/DD). 

In 2002 The U.S. Supreme Court decided Atkins v. Virginia, holding that the 8th Amendment prohibits the execution of people with I/DD.  The Supreme Court left to the states how to define I/DD in regards to eligibility for a death sentence. Missouri utilizes a three-part test to determine whether someone is intellectually disabled. A person must establish they have significantly subaverage intelligence, continual and extensive related deficits in two or more adaptive functions, and onset of the intellectual disability prior to the age of 18.  Ernest Johnson objectively meets all three categories.  

In addition to Ernest having Intellectual Disability, he has severe mental illness caused by a traumatic brain injury from 2009, in which a large tumor was removed from the front of his brain. This has left him with severe scar tissue and even lower functioning.

Despite Ernest meeting the criteria that would constitutionally bar an execution, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt is seeking a death warrant. #HelpSaveErnestJohnson by signing and sharing our petition seeking clemency for Ernest Johnson.