Carl Johnson was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of Ed Thompson
According to court documents Carl Johnson would rob a grocery store and during the armed robbery would shoot and kill security guard Ed Thompson
Carl Johnson would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Carl Johnson would be executed by lethal injection on September 19 1995
Carl Johnson Photos
Carl Johnson Case
A man was executed by injection early today for shooting an elderly security guard to death in a 1978 grocery store robbery.
“I want the world to know I am innocent,” Carl Johnson, 40, said in his final statement, strapped to the gurney. ” I have found peace. Let’s ride. I’m ready.”
Mr. Johnson was the 14th Texas convict put to death this year and the 40th nationally, setting a record for the most executions in the United States in one year. The previous record was 38 executions in 1993.
Mr. Johnson contended that the guard, Ed Thompson, 75, fired the first shot during the robbery at a Houston store and that the five shots Mr. Johnson fired into the guard were in self-defense. Prosecutors said there would have been no gunfire if Mr. Johnson had not tried to rob the store
Mr. Johnson fled with only some change after the shooting.
An accomplice, Carl Baltimore, who testified against Mr. Johnson, received a 40-year prison term and was paroled in 1987. He was returned to prison in 1991 on other convictions.
Testimony at Mr. Johnson’s trial and documents in his appeals indicated that he was physically and emotionally abused as a child and abandoned by his parents. An eighth-grade dropout, Mr. Johnson became an ironworker before eventually turning to drugs and alcohol.
The United States Supreme Court denied a stay for Mr. Johnson late Monday, rejecting arguments that the state had rushed the execution date. Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg argued for a stay.
