Texas man is executed 13 years to the day of a store robbery in which he
set a clerk on fire
[May 21, 2025]
By JUAN A. LOZANO and MICHAEL GRACZYK
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A Texas man was executed Tuesday evening, 13
years to the day of a convenience store robbery in which he set a clerk
on fire in a Dallas suburb.
Matthew Lee Johnson, 49, received a lethal injection at the state
penitentiary in Huntsville. He was condemned for the May 20, 2012,
attack on 76-year-old Nancy Harris, a great-grandmother he splashed with
lighter fluid and set ablaze in the suburb of Garland. Badly burned, she
died days afterward.
Asked by the warden if he had a final statement, Johnson turned his head
and looked at his victim’s relatives, watching through a window close
by.
“As I look at each one of you, I can see her on that day,” he said,
speaking slowly and clearly. “I please ask for your forgiveness. I never
meant to hurt her.” He added, "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,” said Johnson, who also asked forgiveness from his wife
and daughters.
There was little reaction from Harris’ relatives — three sons, two
daughters-in-law and a granddaughter — who witnessed the execution and
declined to speak with reporters afterward.
As the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital began taking effect,
Johnson gasped several times, then made repeated sounds like snoring.
Within a minute, all movement stopped. He was pronounced dead at 6:53
p.m. CDT, 26 minutes after the drugs began flowing into his arms.
Johnson’s execution was the second carried out Tuesday in the United
States. Hours earlier in Indiana, Benjamin Ritchie received a lethal
injection for the 2000 killing of a police officer.
The day's executions were part of a group of four scheduled within about
a week’s time. On May 15, Glen Rogers was executed in Florida. On
Thursday, Oscar Smith is scheduled to receive a lethal injection in
Tennessee.
Security video captured part of the attack against Harris who, despite
her burns, was able to describe the suspect before she died.
Johnson’s guilt was never in doubt. During his 2013 trial, he admitted
to setting Harris on fire and also expressed remorse. “I hurt an
innocent woman. I took a human being’s life ... It was not my intentions
to -- to kill her or to hurt her, but I did,” he had said at the time.
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This undated photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice shows Matthew Lee Johnson, who was sentenced to death for a
convenience store robbery in which he set an elderly clerk on fire
in Garland, Texas. (Texas Department of Criminal Justice via AP)
Johnson said he had not been aware of what he had done as he had
been high after smoking $100 worth of crack. His attorneys told
jurors Johnson had a long history of drug addiction and had been
sexually abused as a child.
Harris had worked at the convenience store for more than 10 years,
living only about a block and a half away, according to testimony
from one of her sons. She had four sons, 11 grandchildren and seven
great-grandchildren.
Prosecutors said Harris had only been working her Sunday morning
shift for a short time when Johnson walked in, poured lighter fluid
over her head and demanded money.
After Johnson grabbed the money from the register, he set Harris on
fire and calmly walked out of the store, according to court
documents. Harris frantically tried to extinguish herself and her
clothing, exiting the store and screaming for help before a police
officer used a fire extinguisher to douse the flames covering her
body. Johnson was arrested about an hour later.
Harris suffered extensive second- and third-degree burns over her
head and face, neck, shoulders, upper arms, and leg and was in a
great deal of pain in the days before she died, a nurse and doctor
testified.
Johnson’s legal team did not pursue any appeals this week with the
U.S. Supreme Court, according to David Dow, one of the inmate’s
attorneys. Lower appeals courts had previously rejected defense
requests to stay the execution, and the Texas Board of Pardons and
Paroles on Friday denied Johnson’s request to commute his death
sentence to a lesser penalty.
In previous appeals, Johnson’s lawyers had argued his death sentence
was unconstitutional because he was improperly determined to be a
future danger to society, a legal finding that was needed to
sentence him to death. His most recent appeals had argued his
execution date had been illegally scheduled.
Johnson was the fourth person put to death this year in Texas,
historically the nation’s busiest capital punishment state.
Tuesday’s executions in Texas and Indiana brought this year’s total
in the U.S. to 18 inmates put to death.
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