Posted on 10/19/2006 11:18:25 AM PDT by raccoonradio
LIVINGSTON, Texas (AP) - A death-row inmate slit his own throat with a makeshift knife early Thursday, committing suicide about 15 hours before he was scheduled to be executed, a prison official said.
Michael Dewayne Johnson, 29, was on death row for the 1995 killing of a convenience store clerk near Waco.
Early Thursday, he slashed his own throat and arm with a makeshift blade fashioned from a small piece of metal attached to a wooden stick, said Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Huntsville.
Prison guards had been checking on Johnson's welfare every 15 minutes, as is customary, when they found him unresponsive in a pool of blood in his cell, Lyons said. He was taken to a hospital in nearby Livingston, where he was pronounced dead, Lyons said.
"At a 2:30 a.m. check, Mr. Johnson was talking to prison staff, and had just eaten breakfast," Lyons said. "He had made no indications that he was contemplating suicide, nor has a note or other explanation been found."
Johnson's execution had been scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday. His last-minute appeal was still pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
His was at least the seventh suicide on death row in Texas.
In a recent prison interview, Johnson had denied gunning down 27-year-old Jeff Wetterman, who helped pump gas at the family store off Interstate 35 near Waco. Johnson blamed his companion, David Vest, for the killing.
"I never even saw the dude," Johnson said. "(Vest) jumped back into the car and we took off. He hollered: 'Go! Go! Go!'"
Vest blamed the shooting on Johnson, took an eight-year prison term in a plea deal and testified against his friend. Vest is now free.
Johnson's attorney Greg White argued in his client's Supreme Court appeal that Vest had admitted to the shooting but that the confession was improperly suppressed, depriving Johnson of a fair trial.
Johnson would have been the 22nd Texas inmate executed this year. The state now has 390 people on death row.
"OK, we'll commute his sentence...get the word out to the prison. What? You say he...? Oh..."
Cost reduction?
Anything to keep the electric meter from making that whirring noise.
What an idiot. To add to all your sins by doing this. Now we know why he was on death row in the first place.
Alrighty, then.
If only he had done it earlier to save money.. I love Texas
OK with me.
Details on Johnson here (scroll down).
Not sure what Texas method of execution is, or what the
cost reduction if any is...
http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/Pending/06/oct06.htm
pity he didn't do it ten years ago.
Goodbye!
11 years too late, IMO.
Just to make it absolutely positive that he shoots down the bank drive-thru suction tube to hell.
We should consider making suicide an option for death row criminals.
Bush's fault.
courttv.com says lethal injection is method in Tex.
Pass the knife on to the next guy on the list.
"We should consider making suicide an option for death row criminals."
Good idea! Just leave razorblades laying around in their cell.
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