Execution date set for Delaware inmate

March 19, 2012

Delaware: The execution date has been set on April 20, 2012 for Shannon Johnson, who was sentenced to death in 2006. Superior Court of Delaware Judge M. Jane Brady set the date.

Johnson was convicted of shooting and killing a man he found in a car with his ex-girlfriend and later non-fatally shooting her. The Delaware Supreme Court upheld his conviction and death sentence in 2009, after which Johnson declined to seek further appeals to his sentence. Federal public defenders sought to intervene in his case without his consent, claiming that Johnson was not mentally competent to choose to waive his right to appeal. Judge Brady refused to allow the public defenders to participate in a competency hearing, after which they defied her orders to turn over their case file to prosecutors.

Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, Greg Sleet, also ordered the public defenders to turn over their case file on Johnson and voided their appointments to defend him, saying that they had misled the court by claiming that they were acting on Johnson's behalf with his consent.

Johnson's attorney said after the sentencing hearing that he has been "steadfast" in his opposition to all further appeals. "He fervently hopes no zealot files state or federal proceedings to override his competent decision."