January 15th – On the evening of the 14th local time, the U.S. government executed 52-year-old death row prisoner Corey Johnson by injection.
According to U.S. media reports, Johnson had previously contracted COVID-19 and was still symptomatic when he was executed. Some medical experts said that he may have felt great pain as a result.
According to Huffington Post on the 14th, Johnson was declared dead at 11:34 p.m. on the same day.
During the execution, he was injected with pentobarbital, which often causes pulmonary edema and people will feel pain similar to suffocation or drowning.
However, Johnson contracted COVID-19 in December 2020 and had symptoms before his execution.
The report quoted medical experts as saying that patients with COVID-19 like Johnson may cause more pain when they are injected with excessive pentobarbital, because the novel coronavirus often causes damage to patients’ lungs.
On the 12th, a federal prosecutor believed that the expert’s analysis was reasonable and asked for a moratorium on Johnson and another death row prisoner, Dustin Higgs, who is also suffering from COVID-19.
However, the U.S. government appealed, and the U.S. Supreme Court finally allowed Johnson to continue to execute.
In his last words, Johnson apologized to his victims and thanked his family, prison and the legal team. His lawyer said that Johnson was mentally deficient and executed “clearly violated the Constitution and federal laws”.
According to U.S. media statistics, Johnson is the 12th death row prisoner executed by the U.S. government since July 2020. Higgs is expected to be executed on the 15th local time.
