A post conviction appeal by inmate Donnie Edward Johnson, sentenced to death in Shelby County for the 1984 suffocation murder of his wife, was denied Monday by the Tennessee Supreme Court.
Johnson, 49, killed his wife, 30-year-old Connie Johnson, by stuffing a plastic bag in her throat after striking her on the head. The Supreme Court affirmed his conviction and sentence in 1987 and trial and appellate courts denied two subsequent post-conviction appeals.
In the appeal denied Monday, Johnson claimed his case should be reopened because the grand jury that indicted him was tainted by the fact that women were systematically excluded from serving as grand jury forepersons. In raising the issue, Johnson cited a U.S. Supreme Court decision, Campbell v. Louisiana, that dealt with the exclusion of minorities from grand juries.