BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C.–A Charleston man sentenced to death in the 2002 fatal shooting of a South Carolina Highway Patrolman is hoping to have his death sentence dismissed.
Convicted cop killer Jesse Sapp is in court with his attorney today asking for a new sentence hearing because of “troubling police misconduct.”
Meanwhile, prosecutors want the judge to deny a possible hearing for Sapp.
Corporal Kenneth Johnson was shot and killed while conducting a holiday weekend public safety checkpoint in Berkeley County more than a decade ago.
Johnson and other troopers were positioned on College Park Road between I-26 and US 17A and had stopped a pickup truck. As a trooper wrote the female driver a ticket for possession of an open container of an alcoholic beverage, Corporal Johnson walked around the back of the truck to check the identity of the male passenger.
As he did so, Sapp jumped out of the truck and opened fire, striking Corporal Johnson in the abdomen just below his protective vest. As Sapp attempted to escape, the other troopers returned fire, wounding him, and took him into custody.
Sapp was reportedly an escapee from a Charleston County work release detail. The female driver of the truck was also charged with possession of a stolen vehicle.
Sapp was sentenced on May 9, 2003 to death by lethal injection.
Corporal Johnson had been a member of the South Carolina Highway Patrol for 12 years, and is survived by his wife and two children.
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