MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, who had been considering a request for clemency by death row inmate Don Johnson, announced Tuesday he will not intervene in the execution.
“After a prayerful and deliberate consideration of Don Johnson‘s request for clemency, and after a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence of the State of Tennessee and will not be intervening,” Lee said in a statement.
Johnson, 68, was convicted of murdering his wife Connie Johnson in 1984 by suffocating her in a Memphis camping center that he managed.
He had sought clemency because of his religious conversion in prison. His stepdaughter joined that request.