Kevin Johnson's Final Words Before Missouri Execution

Missouri has executed a man convicted of killing a police officer, despite attorneys arguing the case was tainted with racism.

Kevin Johnson, 37, died at 7:40 p.m. after an injection of pentobarbital at the state prison in Bonne Terre on Tuesday night.

Johnson was not in the execution chamber alone—a first for modern executions in the state, The Associated Press reported.

He spoke softly with his spiritual advisor, the Rev. Darryl Gray, until the drug was administered, according to the AP.

Gray read from the Bible as Johnson shut his eyes and all movement stopped within seconds. He said that he and Johnson "read scripture and had a word of prayer."

"He apologized again. He apologized to the victim's family," Gray said. "He apologized to his family. He said he was looking forward to seeing his baby brother. And he said he was ready."

Johnson had declined a final meal and did not make a final statement, Karen Pojmann, a spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Corrections told Newsweek.

His attorney Shawn Nolan said his client had always accepted responsibility for killing Kirkwood officer William McEntee in 2005, but that his death sentence was "the product of blatant racism."

The U.S. Supreme Cout denied a request for a stay on Tuesday evening, a day after Missouri's Supreme Court did the same. Missouri's Republican Gov. Mike Parson declined to step in and stop the execution.

"Tonight, the state of Missouri killed Kevin Johnson, an amazing father to his daughter Khorry, and a completely rehabilitated man," Nolan said in a statement.

"Make no mistake about it, Missouri capitally prosecuted, sentenced to death and killed Kevin because he is Black."

In a statement, Parson said Johnson's claims "were reviewed by state and federal courts, and no court reversed his conviction or sentence. We hope that this will bring some closure to Sgt. McEntee's loved ones who continue to anguish without him."

McEntee, 43, a husband and father of three, was among the 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 the terms.

He saw officers arrive from a bedroom window and woke his 12-year-old brother, Joseph "Bam Bam" Long, who ran to a house next door but then collapsed and began having a seizure.

At his trial, Johnson testified that McEntee kept his mother from entering the house to help his brother, who died a short time later at a hospital. The boy had a congenital heart defect.

McEntee returned to the neighborhood later that evening for an unrelated report of fireworks being shot off.

According to court records, McEntee was in his car questioning three children when Johnson shot him through an open window. Johnson then got into the car and took McEntee's gun, walked down the street to tell his mother that the officer "let my brother die" and "needs to see what it feels like to die."

She had told him that it wasn't true, but Johnson went back and and found McEntee struggling on his knees. He shot the officer again, killing him.

Johnson acted as "judge, juror and executioner" in killing McEntee, his wife, Mary McEntee, said in a statement read after Tuesday's execution. "Bill was killed on his hands and knees in front of strangers, the people he dedicated his life to," she said.

Johnson took responsibility and expressed remorse for the killing in a recent interview with St. Louis Public Radio.

"I think as humans, we tend to shift the blame," he said. "I don't think [McEntee] did anything that was wrong that day that I can even blame him for."

His attorneys had asked courts to halt his execution due to racial bias in the case, as well as other reasons including a history of mental illness and his age, 19, at the time of the crime.

E.E. Keenan, the special prosecutor appointed by the St. Louis Prosecutor's Office to look into the case, had filed a motion earlier in November to vacate the death sentence, arguing that race played a "substantial role" in the process.

Keenan's filing said former St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch's office handled five cases involving the deaths of police officers during his 28 years in office. McCulloch sought the death penalty in the four cases involving Black defendants, but not in the one case where the defendant was white.

A judge declined to halt the execution, and appeals were also denied.

Courts also declined to step in to allow Johnson's 19-year-old daughter Corionsa "Khorry" Ramey to witness the execution. A Missouri law bars anyone under 21 from witnessing executions.

"I have suffered so much loss in my life. It is excruciating to know that I am about to lose my dad all over again when the state kills him, yet I cannot be present for his death simply because of my age," she said this week.

"The fact that I will not be able to give him comfort and experience any sort of grief and closure for myself, for no other reason than my age, is a new and fresh loss, and a total injustice."

Pojmann said Ramey, her baby and a friend visited with Johnson for about an hour earlier on Tuesday.

Johnson's was Missouri's second execution this year and the 17th in the U.S.

Update 11/30/22, 9:33 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Karen Pojmann.