A three-reporter Chronicle story today notes the indifference over what the reporters (or at least their editors) probably thought would be a much bigger, much more exciting story:
Lonnie Earl Johnson, convicted of the 1990 robbery-murder of two Magnolia teenagers, became the 100th killer sent to Texas’ death house by a Harris County jury on Tuesday.
The execution took place without the street theater and bullhorn-amplified protests that normally mark such events.
No television cameramen jockeyed for position as witnesses marched into the Huntsville Unit.
Seven death penalty opponents watched wordlessly from a distance.
Little emotion was displayed, either by Johnson’s sole witness or by relatives of the victims, who declined comment Tuesday.
Maybe there’s a lesson for the Chronicle‘s editors, who chose to devote three reporters to this latest Chron Eye for the Death Row Killer Guy.
Like most people (apparently), Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal did not seem to regard 100 as any sort of magical number:
Johnson’s status as the 100th killer executed at the behest of Harris County juries since Texas reinstated the death penalty in 1982 caused little stir at the district attorney’s office.
District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal dismissed it as “insignificant.”
In the story, the three reporters note that #101 is scheduled for August.
