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Johnson Executed For Videotaped Robbery-Slaying
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Posted on 06/11/2003 9:04:45 PM PDT by chance33_98

Johnson Executed For Videotaped Robbery-Slaying

Inmate's Final Words: 'Tell Mama I Love Her' Posted: 6:54 p.m. CDT June 11, 2003 Updated: 7:04 p.m. CDT June 11, 2003

HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- A twice-paroled burglar was executed Wednesday evening for gunning down the night manager of a suburban San Antonio convenience store almost 10 years ago in a $23 robbery.

"Tell Mama I love her," Kia Levoy Johnson, 38, said when asked by a prison warden if he had a final statement. "Tell the kids I love them too. See y'all," he said, directing his comments to his brother, watching through a window a few feet away.

He never looked through an adjacent window where the parents and brother and sister of his victim watched.

Johnson, who has four children, gasped a couple of times as the lethal drugs began to take effect and was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m., seven minutes after the dose began.

Johnson was condemned for killing William Matthew Rains, who authorities said bled to death after he was shot once in the abdomen with a .32-caliber pistol in the Oct. 29, 1993, fatal attack at the Balcones Heights store.

Johnson was the 16th condemned inmate to receive lethal injection in Texas this year and one of 10 set to die over the next two months.

Johnson's lawyers contended he was mentally retarded and should not be put to death because the U.S. Supreme Court has barred execution of the mentally retarded.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected the appeal last week. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also turned down the appeal late Tuesday and Johnson's lawyer took his argument to the Supreme Court. The high court late Wednesday afternoon refused to halt the punishment.

Appeals that contended Johnson received incompetent legal help at his 1995 Bexar County trial were rejected earlier.

For an agonizing 45 minutes, a surveillance videotape from inside the store shows the victim, Rains, trying to climb out from behind a counter after he had been shot and robbed.

"It's like in the movies where you see the shaking hand come up and the shaking hand go down when somebody is trying to lift themselves up," Bexar County Assistant District Attorney Michael Cohen recalled this week. "You'd see the hand shake, then fall. It was real surreal."

The video that showed Rains' excruciating death also showed the shooting and helped convict Johnson, who insisted he was innocent.

"I told them that they had the wrong person and that I did not kill anybody," Johnson, who refused to speak with reporters from death row, said on a Web site devoted to his case.

"I'm not surprised he's sitting there awaiting his execution saying it wasn't him," said Catherine Babbitt, who also prosecuted the case. "There's no doubt in my mind it was him."

"He walks in, the gun's out and he shoots the guy immediately," Cohen said. "The guy goes down and (Johnson) stands over the counter and is yelling at the guy to get up to open the register."

On the tape, Rains, 32, is shot once and moans in pain. His attacker grabs the register from the counter and flees.

"As he's doing that, he's dragging the cash register tape, the paper that comes out," Cohen recalled. "And when he steps out of the door he steps on the cash register tape and leaves a real good imprint of the sole of the tennis shoes he's wearing."

A customer found Rains' body and called police. When the video of the crime was aired on television in San Antonio, several people called police to tell them the gunman was Johnson.

"When we caught up with him at his residence, we found that same tennis shoe in his closet and it was a perfect match," Cohen said.

Johnson, a high school graduate who worked as a cook, was no stranger to authorities. He had a long juvenile record that included seven arrests. As an adult, records showed he had four more arrests and wound up with a pair of burglary convictions that in March 1990 got him 10 years in prison. Six months later he was paroled, only to be returned to prison in February 1992 as a parole violator.

Nine months later, in November, he was paroled again. The Rains killing occurred the following October.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: bubyeleroy; execution; goodbye; takingoutthetrash; texas

1 posted on 06/11/2003 9:04:45 PM PDT by chance33_98
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To: MeeknMing
Ping
2 posted on 06/11/2003 9:05:00 PM PDT by chance33_98 (www.hannahmore.com -- Shepherd Of Salisbury Plain is online, more to come! (my website))
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To: chance33_98
Another one bites the dust...
3 posted on 06/11/2003 9:10:11 PM PDT by xm177e2 (Stalinists, Maoists, Ba'athists, Pacifists: Why are they always on the same side?)
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To: chance33_98
Good riddance.
4 posted on 06/11/2003 9:11:11 PM PDT by South40
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To: chance33_98
Just taking out the trash
5 posted on 06/11/2003 9:15:16 PM PDT by hatfieldmccoy (Just a country boy with an agenda :)
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To: chance33_98
Rains would be alive had the scum stayed longer where he should have been -- in prison. And, Johnson would still be alive.
6 posted on 06/11/2003 9:23:06 PM PDT by doug from upland (Martha is indicted and the Clintons still walk free.........what a country)
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To: chance33_98
For the post and ping I thank you, sir !!

I was going to check the DMN last night and update my earlier thread, but got sidetracked !

7 posted on 06/12/2003 5:54:57 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP (Bu-bye Dixie Chimps! / Check out my Freeper site !: http://home.attbi.com/~freeper/wsb/index.html)
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To: yall
Here is The Dallas Morning News edition:


Man executed for killing store manager in 1993

San Antonio robbery netted him $23; victim bled to death

06/12/2003

Associated Press

HUNTSVILLE, Texas – A twice-paroled burglar was executed Wednesday evening for gunning down the night manager of a suburban San Antonio convenience store 9 ½ years ago in a $23 robbery.

"Tell Mama I love her," Kia Levoy Johnson, 38, said when asked by a prison warden whether he had a final statement. "Tell the kids I love them, too. See y'all," he said, directing his comments to his brother, watching through a window a few feet away.

Mr. Johnson never looked through an adjacent window where the parents and brother and sister of his victim watched.

He gasped a couple of times as the lethal drugs began to take effect and was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m., seven minutes after the dose began.

Mr. Johnson was condemned for killing William Matthew Rains, who authorities said bled to death after he was shot once in the abdomen with a .32-caliber pistol in the Oct. 29, 1993, fatal attack at the Balcones Heights store.

Also Online
Texas Executions: Coverage from TXCN.com
Offender profile: Kia Levoy Johnson
Related links
Texas Department of Criminal Justice
Scheduled executions
Offenders on death row
Mr. Johnson was the 16th condemned inmate to receive lethal injection in Texas this year and one of 10 set to die over the next two months.

Mr. Johnson's lawyers had contended that he was mentally retarded and should not be put to death because the U.S. Supreme Court has barred execution of the mentally retarded. Earlier, his attorneys unsuccessfully argued that Mr. Johnson received incompetent legal help at his 1995 Bexar County trial.

A surveillance videotape inside the store showed the victim, Mr. Rains, trying for 45 minutes to climb out from behind a counter after he had been shot and robbed.

"It's like in the movies where you see the shaking hand come up and the shaking hand go down when somebody is trying to lift themselves up," said Bexar County Assistant District Attorney Michael Cohen. "You'd see the hand shake, then fall. It was real surreal."

Mr. Johnson, who declined to speak with reporters from death row, said on a Web site devoted to his case that he was innocent.


Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dallas/tsw/stories/061203dntexexecution.aaf5c.html

8 posted on 06/12/2003 6:02:29 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP (Bu-bye Dixie Chimps! / Check out my Freeper site !: http://home.attbi.com/~freeper/wsb/index.html)
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To: chance33_98; Sparta; luckodeirish; archy; Houmatt; BJClinton; SpookBrat; bonehead4freedom; ...

AP
Kia Levoy Johnson

Johnson Executed For Videotaped Robbery-Slaying

Excerpt:

HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- A twice-paroled burglar was executed Wednesday evening for gunning down the night manager of a suburban San Antonio convenience store almost 10 years ago in a $23 robbery.

"Tell Mama I love her," Kia Levoy Johnson, 38, said when asked by a prison warden if he had a final statement. "Tell the kids I love them too. See y'all," he said, directing his comments to his brother, watching through a window a few feet away.

He never looked through an adjacent window where the parents and brother and sister of his victim watched.

Johnson, who has four children, gasped a couple of times as the lethal drugs began to take effect and was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m., seven minutes after the dose began.




Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Texas Executions ping list!. . .don't be shy.


9 posted on 06/12/2003 6:08:39 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP (Bu-bye Dixie Chimps! / Check out my Freeper site !: http://home.attbi.com/~freeper/wsb/index.html)
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To: yall
Yesterday's thread :

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/927013/posts
10 posted on 06/12/2003 6:14:23 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP (Bu-bye Dixie Chimps! / Check out my Freeper site !: http://home.attbi.com/~freeper/wsb/index.html)
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To: MeeknMing
Another classic textbook example of mainstream media dehumanization and degredation of the victim. No picture, no family interviews. Nothing.
11 posted on 06/12/2003 6:26:59 AM PDT by wolficatZ
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To: MeeknMing
Sorry, I won't miss this POS.
12 posted on 06/12/2003 10:34:32 AM PDT by Sparta (Tagline removed by moderator)
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To: chance33_98
Not so much an execution but rather more like pulling the flush handle on a toilet.
13 posted on 06/12/2003 10:50:35 AM PDT by LibKill (MOAB, the greatest advance in Foreign Relations since the cat-o'-nine-tails!)
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