Who Is Ernest Johnson? Advocates call for clemency ahead of Missouri inmate's execution

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

47% : In an op-ed for the Missouri Independent, Holden said he supports capital punishment in principle, pointing to the 20 executions that took place during his time in office.
45% : "Racism is the hallmark of the death penalty in the US, where people of color are far more likely to be executed than white people, especially if the victim is white.
44% : The death penalty in the U.S. is "the descendant of slavery, lynching and segregation," Luz María Henríquez, the executive director of the ACLU of Missouri, said in a statement that was delivered at the rally and provided to Newsweek.
42% : The death penalty only serves to create more victims and perpetuates cycles of violence.
42% : Johnson had asked for his execution to be carried out by firing squad, a method of execution that is not authorized under Missouri law.
39% : "Ernest Johnson categorically meets all three criteria for diagnosis of an intellectual disability and should be granted clemency from execution," Elyse Max, the executive director of Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, told Newsweek.
37% : But death penalty opponents and others are calling on the state's Republican governor to halt his execution, citing the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on executing the intellectually disabled.

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