Kevin Johnson, 23, is on death row after being convicted of fatally shooting Kirkwood police sergeant in 2005.
By Roseann Moring
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A man who received the death penalty for murdering a Kirkwood police officer asked the Missouri Supreme Court on Wednesday to give him a new trial.
Kevin Johnson, now 23, was convicted in 2007 of first-degree murder in the July 2005 shooting of Kirkwood police Sgt. William McEntee, 43.
Johnson’s attorney, Deborah Wafer, argued that one of the jurors knew Detective Don Scognamiglio, who testified at the trial.
After Scognamiglio recognized the juror, he told an attorney who contacted the defense.
Daniel McPherson, representing the state, responded that it is reasonable to believe the juror didn’t realize she had worked with Scognamiglio’s wife until she saw him at the trial.
The juror later testified she had worked with Scognamiglio’s wife for about two years and had not seen either for about 2½ years.
Wafer also argued that a potential juror, who is black, was improperly dismissed.
The trial prosecutor dismissed the woman in part because she seemed reluctant to answer questions about the death penalty. McPherson said the woman was dismissed for reasons other than her race.
Johnson’s attorneys also wrote in a court brief that the jury was not given appropriate instructions, the judge should not have allowed McEntee’s mother to read a letter by McEntee’s son and police did not ask Johnson whether he wanted to waive his rights during interrogation.
Court documents state Johnson blamed McEntee for the death of his younger brother, who had collapsed earlier that day and died of natural causes. Johnson believed McEntee and other police, who were there at the time of the death, could have done more to save his brother.
The Supreme Court generally takes a few months to hand down a ruling. If the court gives him a new trial, it will be his third. In his first trial, in April 2005, the jury deadlocked over whether the shooting was first- or second-degree murder.
Copyright 2009 St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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