Final Moments and a Plea for Forgiveness
Just moments before his execution, Johnson turned to Harris’ family—who were watching through a window just feet away—and made a direct appeal for forgiveness.
He said: “As I look at each one of you, I can see her on that day. I please ask for your forgiveness. I never meant to hurt her.”
“I pray that she’s the first person I see when I open my eyes and I spend eternity with. I made wrong choices, I’ve made wrong decisions, and now I pay the consequences.”
This emotional plea drew attention to the psychological toll of long-term incarceration, and how faith-based recovery programs and inmate wellness initiatives are increasingly part of prison reform discourse in the U.S., U.K., and Canada.
Courtroom Reflections and Legal Defeat
In his 2013 trial, Johnson referred to himself as the “lowest scum of the earth.” “I hurt an innocent woman. I took a human being’s life.
I was the cause of that. It was not my intentions to kill her or to hurt her, but I did,” he told the jury—a quote that became central to debates on intent versus consequence in criminal law.
