(TW: Violence, Death, Emotional)
He stole the checkbook from his neighbor, a 70-year-old Mr. John Watson, and wrote out checks in amounts adding up to $8,700, some of them made out to himself. His mother was Mr. Watson’s beloved caretaker, perhaps why Watson told him that if he returned most of the money by the following Monday, no charges would be brought forward. He said he couldn’t repay in time. The next day, Mr. Watson was found dead in his front yard, beaten and shot four times.
His cousin, Jermaine Johnson, had spent a year in jail, facing the death penalty himself, before agreeing to testify against him in exchange for a five-year sentence. Johnson claimed there was pressure by the prosecution to give a false testimony against him
He told police about the checks but denied ever hurting Mr. Watson. His first trial ended in mistrial due to a hung jury. The second, overturned by the Georgia Supreme Court. The third, he was given a death sentence.
Even the prosecution knew the results hinged on Johnson’s testimony, telling the jury, “If you never heard anything about Jermaine Johnson in this case, if he had never testified, would you have enough information to make a decision in this case? You wouldn’t.” No physical evidence connected him to the crime.
His execution was scheduled for March 10th, 2015 but delayed due to chunks found in the drugs meant to kill him and another inmate. The state was permitted to keep secret the source of its lethal injection drugs.
He and his lawyers never stopped professing his innocence and fighting for his life. They maintain that prosecutors presented misleading testimony, claiming that a neighbor had seen him at the scene. She had told police that she had seen someone else.
On Monday, December 7th, his lawyers said this to the Parole Board in a final plea for his life. Following the prosecution’s testimony, he was denied clemency.
On Tuesday, December 8th, a state court dismissed his complaint that he was innocent, declining to halt his execution. He also filed a challenge that the courts could not guarantee the efficacy of the drug to be used to execute him. The pharmacist who compounded the lethal injection drugs had an error rate of 50 percent according to court filings, and the source of the chunks found in drugs earlier in the year had never been addressed.
The Supreme Court denied him a stay of execution with no explanation.
On Wednesday, December 9th, he accepted his last meal—nothing special, just the same thing all the other inmates ate that night: chicken and rice, beans, rutabagas, turnip greens, and cornbread. His only visitor was his pastor. Even his mother, who insisted his innocence, was absent.
It took the nurse assigned to his execution an hour to insert IVs into both of his arms. Eventually, she had to put one into his hand. He winced throughout the drawn-out hour, obviously in pain. He denied a final statement, but accepted a final prayer.
He raised his head, and with his dying breath he mouthed, “Didn’t do it.”
HE is Brain Keith Terrell. Learn his story. Say his name.