There is only so much that defense attorneys can do in cases like that of Matthew Johnson. Johnson is scheduled to be executed on May 20 for the murder of Nancy Harris in Garland in 2012.

His guilt has never been in doubt. At his trial, prosecutors played surveillance video which showed him entering the convenience store where Harris worked, spraying lighter fluid on her, stealing money from the cash register, and setting Harris on fire.

At his trial, his defense attorneys argued that Johnson’s difficult upbringing, the sexual abuse that he endured as a child, and his prolonged drug addiction lessened his culpability for the crime. His jury disagreed and sentenced him to death.

With Johnson’s trial seemingly free of error and his jury having considered and rejected whether anything in his past mitigated his responsibility for the murder, his current attorneys have been forced to file appeals over issues that have nothing to do with his guilt. One questioned whether he had received enough time to file his federal appeals. Another challenged the constitutionality of the Texas rule requiring juries to find that a defendant will forever be dangerous before sentencing them to death. Both appeals were denied.

The attorneys tried another strategy in late April in an attempt to at least delay Johnson’s execution. They submitted a motion to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals claiming that a member of the Texas Attorney General’s Office illegally requested Johnson’s execution.

The attorneys argued that Texas law requires that elected county attorneys, and only county attorneys, have the authority to ask judges to set execution dates for death row prisoners. But in Johnson’s case the attorney with the responsibility to do so – District Attorney John Creuzot of Dallas County – had not requested such a date. Instead, the attorneys said, Edward Marshall, the chief of the Criminal Appeals Division of the Texas Attorney General’s Office, had contacted Johnson’s trial court judge to suggest that the judge schedule Johnson’s execution on one of several dates the AG’s office said were available. The judge, Tracy Holmes, set the execution date.

Johnson’s attorneys noted in their motion that D.A. Creuzot is an opponent of capital punishment and has not sought the death penalty in any case he has prosecuted since being elected in 2019. Furthermore, they said, Dallas County voters re-elected Creuzot in 2022. “The support for Creuzot in Dallas County reflects, at least in part, the county’s evolving view of the death penalty, and appears to show a growing disapproval of its use,” the attorneys wrote. “By circumventing the will of the Dallas County electorate, Johnson’s right to Equal Protection has been violated.”

The Court of Criminal Appeals rejected the argument with no comment. If Johnson’s execution goes forward, he will be the fourth person the state of Texas has killed this year.