USA - Alabama. Christopher Johnson, 38,white, was executed

Christopher Johnson, 38,white, was executed for killing his infant son. Johnson is the 6th person executed this year in Alabama, the state with the highest execution rate per capita in America. Johnson was arrested Feb. 20, 2005, after his son, 6-month-old Elias Ocean Johnson, was pronounced dead at an hospital. An autopsy revealed that the baby had some 85 separate injuries, including several blows to the head and face, a fractured sinus bone and injuries to the back of the throat. Witnesses reported that Johnson said he killed the boy because he hated his wife and wanted to end their relationship. He told jurors he wanted no appeals. Johnson was the 6th person executed in Alabama this year and the 4th to die since the state changed one of the drugs in its lethal injection from sodium thiopental to pentobarbital. He becomes the 55th condemned inmate to be put to death in Alabama since capital punishment was resumed there in 1983. Johnson becomes the 38th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1272nd overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. (see also Dec. 11, 2006 and Feb. 22, 2007).