U.S. District Judge Mark Bennett today (Tuesday) handed down the first death sentence given to a woman in federal court in over 50 years. Angela Johnson,a Klemme native, was sentenced to death shortly before noon today in U.S. District Court in Sioux City, becoming the first woman sent to federal death row since 1953.
The 41-year-old Johnson was convicted in June of ten counts of aiding her former boyfriend Dustin Honken in the execution-style slayings of two men, a woman, and her two daughters, in an attempt to undermine a federal investigation into Honken’s methamphetamine operation.
During the sentencing, Johnson maintained her innocence, saying she was manipulated by Honken, calling him “a monster and sociopath,” and also saying that she regrets that she “wasn’t strong enough.” Johnson is the first woman to face execution by the federal government since December 1953, when Bonnie Brown died in a Missouri gas chamber for kidnapping and murder.