Edward Earl Johnson

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Edward Earl Johnson (1961 – May 20, 1987) was an African American convicted murderer executed by the U.S. state of Mississippi. He was convicted of the murder of white policeman, J.T. Trest and the assault of a sixty-nine-year-old white woman, Sally Franklin. Throughout his 8 years on "Death Row" he continued to plead his innocence.

His case came to international attention when he was featured in the BBC documentary Fourteen Days In May. Broadcast in 1987 this showed the last 2 weeks of Johnson's life. It starts on May 6, the day that Johnson learns the date of his execution is to May 20. In interviews he says that his confession was made under duress with police threatening him with death.

The book, Life on Death Row (Thomas, 1991) details the events leading up to and following the Johnson trial. Thomas shows the key witness for the prosection to be unreliable, changing her story and identification of her assailant several times at the time of the event and in subsequent questioning. This book shows Johnson's trial, and Mississippi justice at the time, to be unfair in many other respects.

In spite of British lawyer Clive Stafford Smith's attempts for a reprieve Edward was executed with the cameras filming the harrowing scenes shortly before the execution. A follow up documentary by Stafford Smith claimed to prove conclusively that Johnson was innocent and had been framed.

He was pronounced dead at 12:06 a.m. on May 20, 1987 after being put to death in the gas chamber of what was then called Parchman Prison Farm.

It was the second execution by the state of Mississippi since the Gregg v. Georgia decision and the 72nd overall in the United States.