Internet Sources:

Capital Punishment in Missouri from Missouri.Net

On the evening of February 18, 1982, an Onyx Gas Station in the City of St. Louis was robbed of approximately $248. A customer who stopped at the station shortly before 8 p.m. discovered the body of the seventeen year old attendant, Donald Voepel, lying face down in a storage room with bullet wounds in the back of his head. The medical examiner who performed the autopsy testified that she found three bullet holes-all within one inch of each other- behind the victim’s right ear. One of the bullets had been fired from a distance of less than six inches from the victims head. The autopsy also revealed a bruise on top of the victims head. During the weeks preceeding the murder, Johns had discussed his plan for robbing the Onyx station with Linda Klund and David Smith, two acquaintances. Klund drove Johns and a second man, Robert Shawn Wishon, to the station. She parked the car a short distance from the station and waited while Johns and Wishon went in. When they returned, she followed an escape route planned earlier by Johns. After disposing of the money bag, Klund dropped off Wishon and then Johns. Johns gave her $50 and asked her to take a bag containing the gun and bullets so he would not have it in case he was picked up. Johns was arrested on February 19. He was convicted of capital murder in the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis and the jury imposed the death sentence.

Last Statement of Stephen K. Johns:

Missouri and its agents have killed innocent men in the past. I guess they think it's just part of doing business. I have, over the past many years, heard many 'last words' of those killed by the State and it's citizens. They range from "I'm sorry" to "kiss my fat ass." If the State and its citizens kill me, I would say that I do not forgive those whose lies led to my conviction. I do not forgive the jurists who exercised their considerable intellect to deny me justified legal redress. I do not forgive those State functionaries, who act as 'good Germans' to kill me. I am innocent, but was not given the tools at trial, or on appeal, to make my innocence into a legal reality. /s/ Stephen K. Johns

Legal Chronology

1982
02/18 - Steve Johns and Robert Wishon shoot and kill Donald Voepel during the robbery of a gas station in St. Louis, Missouri
03/04 - Johns is charged by indictment for Capital Murder.
10/18 - Johns' trial in the Circuit Court of St. Louis City begins.
10/22 - The jury recommends Johns be sentenced to death.

1983
01/07 - The Circuit Court of St. Louis sentences Johns to death. Johns files notice of appeal.

1984
10/09 - The Missouri Supreme Court affirms Johns' conviction and sentence.

1985
03/04 - The United States Supreme Court denies certiorari review.
03/20 - Johns files a motion for post-conviction relief in the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis.

1986
11/20 - The Circuit Court denies the motion for post-conviction relief.

1987
11/03 - The Missouri Court of Appeals affirms the denial of post-conviction relief.

1988
06/06 - The U. S. Supreme Court denies certiorari review.
06/23 - Johns files petition for writ of habeas corpus in the U.S.District Court for the E. D. of Missouri.

1996
07/10 - The U.S. District Court denies the petition for the writ of habeas corpus.

2000
02/08 - The Eighth U.S. Court of Appeals affirms the denial of habeas relief
12/04 - The U.S. Supreme Court declines discretionary review.
12/14 - The State requests an execution date from the Missouri Supreme Court.

2001
09/24 - The Missouri Supreme Court sets October 24, 2001, as Johns' execution date.

National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

Stephen Johns Scheduled Execution Date and Time: 10/24/01 1:01 am.

After 18 years on death row, Stephen Johns is scheduled to be executed by the state of Missouri on October 24th, 2001. Johns, who still maintains his innocence, was sentenced to death in 1983 for being an accomplice in the robbery and murder of a gas station attendant in St. Louis. His accomplice, who plead guilty to non-capital homicide and was convicted in a separate trial, now awaits his parole. The Missouri Supreme Court has admitted that either Mr. Johns or his accomplice could have been the triggerman in the crime; it was never conclusively determined.

Several lapses of justice can be identified in the examination of the case of Stephen Johns. The principal witness against Mr. Johns, the only one who claimed that Mr. Johns had told him he shot the gas station attendant, was financially rewarded upon the conviction. The defense and the jury, however, were denied this information, as it was deemed not “material” evidence in the case. Stephen John’s attorney, who was later disbarred, presented no mitigating evidence against capital punishment.

Stephen Johns has no part in delaying the process of his execution. He has spent the last eighteen years of his life awaiting death in a maximum-security prison. The opportunity for legislative recourse in his case is now nearly exhausted. The Governor of Missouri holds the power to grant clemency to Stephen Johns.

ProDeathPenalty.Com

On the evening of February 18, 1982, an Onyx Gas Station in the City of St. Louis was robbed of approximately $248. A customer who stopped at the station shortly before 8 p.m. discovered the body of the seventeen year old attendant, Donald Voepel, lying face down in a storage room with bullet wounds in the back of his head. The medical examiner who performed the autopsy testified that she found three bullet holes - all within one inch of each other - behind the victim’s right ear. One of the bullets has been fired from a distance of less than six inches from the victim's head. The autopsy also revealed a bruise on top of the victim's head. During the weeks proceeding the murder, Johns had discussed his plan for robbing the Onyx station with Linda Klund and David Smith, two acquaintances. Klund drove Johns and a second man, Robert Shawn Wishon, to the station. She parked the car a short distance from the station and waited while Johns and Wishon went in. When they returned, she followed an escape route planned earlier by Johns. After disposing of the money bag, Klund dropped off Wishon and then Johns. Johns gave her $50 and asked her to take a bag containing the gun and bullets so he would not have it in case he was picked up. Johns was arrested on February 19. He was convicted of capital murder in the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis and the jury imposed the death sentence.

New Hampshire Coalition Against the Death Penalty

Missouri Executes Killer of Gas Station Attendant
POTOSI, Mo. (Reuters) - Wednesday October 24 2:15 AM ET

A Missouri man convicted for shooting to death a teen-age gasoline station attendant 19 years ago was put to death early on Wednesday, despite last-ditch efforts to prove the inmate was wrongly accused.

As his mother and brother looked on, Steven Johns, 55, died at 12:03 a.m. Wednesday after a series of lethal doses of drugs were administered at Potosi Correctional Center, said prison spokesman John Fougere. Johns was the seventh person put to death in Missouri this year and the 53rd since the state resumed capital punishment in 1989.

He had been on death row since January 1983, filing a series of appeals after being found guilty of the 1982 murder of 17-year-old Don Voepel, a high school student who was working at a St. Louis gasoline station when he was killed. According to authorities, the slaying took place while Johns and accomplice Robert Wishon were robbing the gasoline station. Johns shot Voepel three times in the back of the head as the boy lay on the floor of a storage room, they said. Wishon, 38, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 1983 and was paroled in August.

Johns' attorneys last week filed a new appeal after finding in a stack of old legal documents a 1984 affidavit from Wishon reversing an earlier recorded statement in which he had said Johns shot Voepel. But while Johns' attorneys said the evidence indicated Johns guilt was in doubt, prosecutors said the evidence against him was overwhelming, and the courts denied all appeals. As the family of Voepel watched the execution early on Wednesday, Johns issued a last statement maintaining his innocence.

``Missouri and its agents have killed innocent men in the past. I guess they think it just a part of doing business. I have over the past many years heard many last words of those killed by the state and its citizens. They range from 'I'm sorry' to 'Kiss my fat ass,''' Johns said in the statement. If the state and its citizens kill me, I would say that I do not forgive those whose lies led to my conviction. I do not forgive the juries who exercise their considerable intellect to deny me justified legal redress. I do not forgive those state functionaries who act as good Germans to kill me. I am innocent, but was not given the tools at trial or on appeal to make my innocence into a legal reality,'' Johns said.

Twenty-six death penalty opponents protested outside the prison during the execution, Fougere said.

Mid-Missouri Fellowship of Reconciliation

Stephen Johns' Execution

A siren whined in the near distance while 46 people vigiled Tuesday night in front of the Boone County courthouse in Columbia. My mind visioned public officials responding to help halt the crime being planned in a few hours: the planned execution of Stephen Johns. Sadly as we all now realize, other officials instead perpetuated the violence and fatally poisoned him a few minutes after midnight on Wednesday morning.

We, with Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty, continue to mourn and condemn the violent death of Donald Veopel, Jr. (murdered in the 1982 robbery, the crime for which the "state" killed Stephen). It is how we respond to all murders, including the state homicide of Stephen Johns. All our state has accomplished is add more people to the list of mourners. Among those suffering from the loss of their loved one is Margie Johns, mother of Stephen. For almost two decades she, his brother, other kin and friends have lived along with him, under the heavy cloud of a death sentence. She had been his strongest advocate. To share your condolences with her, please write, Margie Johns, 3131 Iowa, Apt. 102, St. Louis MO 63118.

On Tuesday night, Stephen told me it would be okay for caring people to write her, expressing their sympathy—if as we feared, the state would kill again. Other folks have told me that she had been somewhat attached to her privacy and may not want to be disturbed. I talked with her on Monday and found her to be glad to speak with me. We have had a bit of history though. I met Stephen back in 1989 or 1990, during a visit to the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City, a year or so before prison workers transferred the capital punishment prisoners to the then newly-constructed Potosi Correctional Center. During our visit at that time, Stephen stressed his innocence. He was the first "condemned" man I met in the Missouri prison system. It was the first time I had entered a state prison. Stephen really thankfully put me at ease, although I was somewhat intimidated with going behind the "Walls." I interviewed him for a radio program called "Zebra" focusing on prison issues, which I hosted on KOPN.

From the prison I went to visit with Margie at her apartment just a few blocks away. I was greatly impressed by her steadfast support for her son and her willingness to have relocated to Jefferson City—rearranging her life-- to be there for her son. Bud Welch, whose daughter Julie was killed in the Oklahoma City bombing, said during his Missouri Journey of Hope talks in April that parents naturally strive harder to provide support to their kids, especially when they are in trouble. Thus it makes complete sense in considering Margie’s constancy. I have an incredibly difficult time imagining what it would be like to have a child (grown even) dwell under a death sentence and ultimately executed. The natural order of the world suggests the older generation should, after living a long life hopefully, expire to make room in this reality for a future generation. Our kids should live on after the parents.

I hadn’t communicated much with Stephen in the years since then. As I apologized to him and to her a few days I ago, I mentioned as an activist I have felt compelled to practice a variety of triage in dealing with the death penalty — working on behalf on the men who are most in imminent danger of being executed, those typically already confronted with an execution date. Stephen continued to be in a legal holding pattern for years. And then he got his date.

Among the many memories I have, of Stephen, perhaps the most telling of his kind, joking and compassionate spirit came in our last conversation on Tuesday night, as I was driving to Potosi for the protest vigil. I asked him with as light-hearted manner as was possible, "So what kind of news have you heard (hoping for executive or other legal intervention)?" Without missing a beat, he jovially barked out, "Oh, I have got a lot of news." I took the bait, "oh, yeah?," hopefully I asked. "All of it bad," he continued. We laughed for a while and cursed. We chatted for about 15 minutes, expressed appreciation for each other and bade each other farewell. The vibrancy of this world has lost some color with the violent passing of Stephen Johns. Let us continue to struggle to end this abominable practice, taking life in a twisted manner to show our reverence for other lives.