Malcolm Johnson was executed by the State of Oklahoma for the murder of Ura Thompson
According to court documents Malcolm Johnson would break into the home of seventy six year old Ura Thompson. The elderly woman would be sexually assaulted and would die from asphyxiation. Johnson who had been convicted in the past of two other sexual assaults would steal a number of items from the home
Malcolm Johnson would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Malcolm Johnson would be executed by lethal injection on January 6 2000
There was a lot of problems when it came to the forensics in this case and the head doctor was fired shortly after Johnson execution
Malcolm Johnson Photos
Malcolm Johnson FAQ
When Was Malcolm Johnson Executed
Malcolm Johnson was executed on January 6 2000
Malcolm Johnson Case
At his trial for rape and murder, during 18 years on death row, on the night they strapped him to a gurney and executed him, Malcolm Rent Johnson told anyone who’d listen that he was innocent. Even the prison chaplain, who’d heard the last confessions of several condemned men, hadn’t heard that statement.
State Attorney General Drew Edmondson says Johnson deserved to die. Even if police chemist Joyce Gilchrist did give false testimony against Johnson — as former colleagues have suggested — there was other “overwhelming” evidence which proved Johnson’s guilt, Edmondson says. But a review by The Associated Press of Johnson’s 1982 trial transcripts shows that “overwhelming” evidence — including a statement made by Johnson and another made by a witness — was inconclusive even then. The transcripts also paint a vivid picture of what transpired in the courtroom where 23-year-old Johnson was convicted and sentenced to death.
A federal grand jury convened this month to investigate Johnson’s execution and nine others involving testimony by Gilchrist, who was recently fired. Whether Johnson was telling the truth is not the issue, said several legal experts who’ve reviewed his case. The real issue is whether he received a fair trial. Johnson was executed January 6, 2,000. “I’m going to heaven on a midnight train,” he told those assembled to watch him die.
Malcolm Rent Johnson was in trouble most of his life. As an adolescent, he ran away from this father’s home in Oklahoma City to be with his divorced mother in Illinois. In Chicago, at age 15, he was arrested for carrying a gun. At 19, he pleaded guilty to raping and robbing two women and was sentenced to state prison. Illinois parole officials allowed Johnson to move to Oklahoma City in 1981 to be near family. Five months later, police came to his apartment to arrest him on suspicion of violating his parole by carrying a handgun.
At the time, Oklahoma City Police Department chemist Joyce Gilchrist had been on the job 18 months. Already she was well-liked by prosecutors for her commanding courtroom presence and her forceful testimony about some of the most equivocal forensic evidence — hair and fibers. A few years later, Gilchrist was attacked by colleagues for definitively matching hair samples, something forensic experts say is impossible without DNA testing, which wasn’t readily available then. Still, she served 21 years in the police lab before Police Chief M.T. Berry fired her this September. Her mistaken testimony helped send two innocent men to prison and another guiltless man to death row. All have been released.
The FBI declined comment on its separate probe involving the federal grand jury. Gilchrist’s attorney, Melvin Hall, Gilchrist’s lawyer, said his client also declined comment. Attorney Doug Parr sued Oklahoma City earlier this year seeking independent analysis of forensic evidence used to convict Johnson. In August, The Associated Press obtained an internal police department memo that said some evidence used to prosecute Johnson did not exist.