Tennessee Inmate Don Johnson Prayed, Sang Hymns During Execution

Sixty-eight-year-old death row inmate Don Johnson, who was executed Thursday, sang hymns till his last breath.

Johnson, who was executed by lethal injection for the 1984 suffocation death of his wife, Connie, asked the warden of the Nashville prison if he could sing hymns in his last moments. After he was strapped down inside the execution chamber and the officials began administering the fatal doses, he began uttering a long prayer asking for forgiveness from God.

"I pray that my life has meant something. I commend my life into your hands, thy will be done, in Jesus name I pray, Amen,” he said as part of his last words at around 7:19 p.m. CDT (8:19 p.m. EDT), USA Today-affiliated Commercial Appeal reported.

After receiving permission from the warden to sing, Johnson sang two hymns while he was being put to death. The second hymn included lyrics like, "No more crying there, we are going to see the king/No more dying there, we are going to see the king." He stopped singing in the middle of the second phrase, "no more dying there,” and drew his final breath at 7:37 p.m. CDT.

Kelley Henry, a lawyer for the Tennessee inmate, believed that her client suffered excruciating pain during his final moments. She said although she was prevented from having a clear view of Johnson’s execution due to the restraints, the gurgling, gasping noises heard by the ones present there were an indication that he could feel the pain even after being administrated an anesthetic drug, which is part of the lethal injection process. The lawyer added that the inmate’s final moments must have felt like drowning, being buried alive and then burned, Fox News reported.

Although his legal team never denied the horrific nature of his crimes, they believed he underwent a religious transformation behind bars. He became an elder in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, while on death row, and hosted prayer services for his fellow inmates.

As a result, Connie’s daughter, Cynthia Vaughn, who was adopted by Johnson, advocated on behalf of him in the days leading up to his execution. Vaughn, as well as many religious leaders, requested Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to spare Johnson's life, but the state government declined to intervene.

“After a prayerful and deliberate consideration of Don Johnson’s request for clemency, and after a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence of the state of Tennessee and will not be intervening,” Lee said in his brief one-sentence statement.

The Tennessee Department of Correction said Wednesday that instead of opting for a special last meal, Johnson had decided to select from the same menu given to other prisoners of the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution and the money set aside for it would go toward feeding the homeless, USA Today-affliliated The Tennessean reported.

The state’s inmates were allotted $20 to spend on a special last meal. “Mr. Johnson realizes that his $20 allotment will not feed many homeless people,” Henry said. “His request is that those who have supported him provide a meal to a homeless person.”

Johnson was the fourth person executed in Tennessee since August. The last two inmates executed in the state chose the electric chair, believing it offered a quicker and less painful death.