09 April 2019 :

Victim's daughter seeks mercy from Gov. Bill Lee for Donnie Edward Johnson. Cynthia Vaughn once condemned death row inmate Donnie Edward Johnson for killing her mother, but now she wants to meet with Gov. Bill Lee to make a case for mercy. Johnson, 68, is scheduled to die May 16 for killing his wife and Vaughn's mother, Connie Johnson, in Memphis in 1984. His legal team said Johnson deserves a reprieve because of his transformation behind bars — from "a liar, a cheat, a con man and a murderer" to an ordained elder in the Seventh-day Adventist Church "with a flock in prison." They laid out the case for mercy in a 21-page clemency petition submitted to Lee's office on Wednesday. Vaughn's forgiveness was the centerpiece of their argument. "Cynthia asks for the privilege of meeting you in person, so she can share her experience of Christian forgiveness," the application read. "Cynthia's plea for mercy is exceptional. We know of only one other case in the history of the state of Tennessee in which the child of the ultimate victim has begged the governor for mercy for the murderer." In that case, the lawyers said, clemency was granted for Gaile Owens. Owens had been sentenced to death for hiring a hit man to kill her husband in 1984, but former Gov. Phil Bredesen commuted her sentence after her son joined her appeal for mercy. Now Johnson's legal team wants Lee to make a similar choice. "This is a story with three chapters," the Rev. Charles Fels, one of Johnson's attorneys, said during a Wednesday news conference discussing the case. "Redemption. That's Don. Forgiveness. That's Cynthia," Fels said. "The 3rd and final chapter is mercy, and that is for the governor of the state of Tennessee." Johnson has become a religious leader at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. It is the 1st clemency petition to reach Lee, whose Christian faith was prominent during his successful campaign for office.