Donnie Edward Johnson's execution is set for May 16. Gov. Bill Lee has denied his request for clemency. Ayrika L Whitney, The Tennessean


UPDATE: Gov. Bill Lee announced Tuesday evening that he would not grant clemency to Donnie Edward Johnson, allowing Johnson's scheduled execution to move forward.

Death row inmate Donnie Edward Johnson has been moved into a cell next to the execution chamber, where he is scheduled to die by lethal injection Thursday night unless Gov. Bill Lee intervenes.

Prison officials announced the move Tuesday, saying Johnson, 68, had been placed on death watch. Death watch is the three-day period before an execution when a death row inmate is placed under 24-hour observation and stricter rules.

During death watch, Johnson will get daily visits with the prison chaplain. On Wednesday, he will order his last meal.

Johnson is set to be executed for the 1984 murder of his wife Connie Johnson in Memphis. He suffocated her by stuffing a 30-gallon trash bag down her throat.

Johnson and his legal team have not questioned the horrific nature of his crime.

But they have stressed his religious transformation behind bars while urging Lee to grant him mercy. Connie Johnson's daughter Cynthia Vaughn, whom Donnie Johnson adopted, has joined them in asking the governor to stop the execution.

Lee is still considering Johnson's clemency application.

Johnson spent his last night on death row with religious volunteers and inmates, according to his lawyer Kelley Henry.

He led them in prayer. 

If Johnson is executed, he will be the fourth condemned man to die in Tennessee since August, when the state began executing inmates at a steady clip.

Dozens of inmates have sued to stop the executions, saying Tennessee's three-drug lethal injection protocol, led by the sedative midazolam, fails to prevent several minutes of torturous pain.

State and federal courts have rejected their efforts despite mounting evidence that the drugs cause excruciating pain, saying the inmates failed to identify another feasible execution method the state could use.

Two of the three Tennessee inmates executed since 2018 have responded to the debate by selecting the electric chair over lethal injection. Johnson declined to make a choice, and the state has defaulted to preparations for a lethal injection.

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