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Regarding "Kevin Johnson executed for the 2005 murder of a Kirkwood police officer" (Nov. 29): In early November, members of Epiphany United Church of Christ sent a letter to Gov. Mike Parson asking that the life of Kevin Johnson be spared. We had studied the facts about the murder he committed and the circumstances of that day and of his life and concluded that this should not have been a death penalty case.
Sadly, our state premeditated the killing of Johnson for years, received much information about the wrongness of the sentence and saw evidence of Johnson's remorse and rehabilitation, and still decided to carry out his murder. The world is not a better place because of his death. Our racial and economic injustice is more apparent than ever.
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As the Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty group said in its informational email the day after his killing: "The death penalty is rife with errors and inconsistencies, fails to deter crime, and leaves more murder victims in its wake. Death is not justice." How right they are.
I believe the Missouri General Assembly should finally end this barbaric process.
Jeanette Mott OxfordÌý• ºüÀêÊÓƵÌý