Edward Earl Johnson was convicted of capital murder for the 1979 death of a police officer. His conviction included the aggravating circumstances of being “committed while in flight after committing the crime of burglary or attempting to commit the crime of rape, id. Sec. 99-19-101(5) (d), and the capital offense was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel” (806 F.2d 1243).

Johnson was sentenced to death. Johnson and his legal team claimed innocence from the trial onward, claiming that his confession was forced by police at gunpoint. Johnson and his legal team filed appeals and applied for a writ of habeas corpus. All appeals were denied and Johnson was executed on May 20th, 1987.

Johnson’s case became the center of international controversy after the BBC documentary Fourteen Days in May, which followed Johnson during the last weeks of his life.

via Edward Earl JOHNSON v. STATE of Mississippi (No. 53017), Edward Earl Johnson, Petitioner-appellant, Cross-appellee, v. Morris Thigpen, Commissioner, Mississippi Department Of Corrections, Respondent-appellee, Cross-appellant, 806 F.2d 1243 (5th Cir. 1986), and “Mississippi Memories – photos from an execution in 1987”.