Arguments will be heard today in a federal appeals court in St. Louis for a north-central Iowa woman who’s sitting on federal death row. Angela Johnson and boyfriend Dustin Honken were convicted of planning and carrying out the drug-related slayings of three adults and two children from the Mason City area in 1993.
Both Johnson and Honken were sentenced to death in 2005, with Johnson becoming the first woman in 50 years to receive a federal death sentence. Johnson’s attorneys are challenging the denial of a change of venue request, jury selection, and the connection between drug trafficking and the murders.