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Donnie
Edward JOHNSON
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics:
Parricide
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder: December 8, 1984
Date of birth: January 15, 1951
Victim profile:
Connie Johnson, 30 (his wife)
Method of murder: Suffocation (by stuffing a plastic garbage bag into her mouth)
On December 8, 1984, Donnie Johnson signed Ronnie
McCoy out of the Penal Farm where he was serving a four month sentence
for charges of false reporting. Johnson took McCoy to their place of
employment, Force Camping Sales.
At the close of the work day,
Johnson's wife Connie met them there. McCoy testified that he left
Connie Johnson alone with her husband in a sales office, and when he
returned Johnson showed him Connie’s dead body. McCoy testified that
he thereafter helped Johnson clean up the office and dispose of the
body because he was scared of Johnson.
Johnson's story was that he
left the room and when he returned, McCoy had killed Connie and that
he had helped McCoy clean up the crime scene and dispose of Connie's
body because he was scare of what McCoy would do if he did not
cooperate. The jury convicted Johnson of first-degree murder.
In Tennessee inmates sentenced to die prior to 1999 are to choose the
method of execution to be used - lethal injection or electric chair.
If they don't choose it defaults to the electric chair. Donnie Johnson
has chosen to die in the electric chair.
NASHVILLE — A federal appeals court on Monday ruled against a death
row inmate who claims a prosecutor and his star witness lied about a
deal to grant immunity for testimony.
The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled against Donnie Johnson,
agreeing with a lower court that there was not sufficient evidence
that a deal existed.
Johnson was convicted in Shelby County in 1985 of suffocating his 30-year-old
wife, Connie, by stuffing a plastic garbage bag into her mouth. He has
said he is innocent and claims a work-release inmate robbed and killed
his wife.
That inmate, Ronnie McCoy, admitted in court to helping clean up the
crime scene and dispose of the body, but he has never been charged in
the crime.
In 2006, the appeals court issued a stay of execution based on
Johnson's claim that the prosecutor had an undisclosed agreement with
McCoy not to pursue charges against him if he testified against
Johnson in court.
At trial, McCoy testified that he left Johnson and his wife alone for
a few minutes at a camping center Johnson managed and when he returned
he found Connie Johnson's bleeding, dead body. McCoy then helped
Donnie Johnson clean up the area, put the body in a van and take it to
the Mall of Memphis, where it was found the next day.
In court filings, Johnson has shown that a 1988 pre-sentence report
for McCoy from an unrelated crime states that McCoy was granted
immunity in exchange for his testimony against Johnson. Wayne Morrow,
the probation officer who prepared the report, has said in an
affidavit that the report accurately reflects what McCoy told him at
the time.
However, both McCoy and prosecutor Kenneth Roach have said in
affidavits that McCoy was not granted immunity. And the court found
that the pre-sentence report and accompanying affidavit did not
constitute clear and convincing evidence that the court was deceived
about a deal between the parties.
One member of the three-judge panel disagreed with the decision,
writing that Johnson deserved an evidentiary hearing to determine the
truth.
Judge Eric Clay, in his dissenting opinion, wrote that McCoy initially
denied knowing anything about the murder of Connie Johnson, then
changed his story to implicate Donnie Johnson three weeks later.
Despite acknowledging his role in the crime, McCoy's work release
status was not revoked and he was paroled only two months later. It
was while he was on parole that he testified against Johnson.
"The state asserts that it was able to obtain full participation from
McCoy, a possible accomplice with a criminal history, without offering
him any deal," Clay wrote. "At the very least, the prosecution's
proposed version of events strains credulity."
The court dismissed a separate, but related, appeal claiming
prosecutorial misconduct because the prosecutor essentially vouched
for McCoy's truthfulness at trial.
