CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Members of the Charleston Police Department took their seats in the galleries of the state Senate watching as senators passed the bill honoring their fallen sister.
The Senate gave unanimous approval to Senate Bill 490, the Patrol Officer Cassie Marie Johnson Memorial Act that creates a new section of code adding a 15-year to life sentence for anyone who that causes the death of a police officer or other first responder.
Johnson, 28, was shot in the line of duty in December 2020–she died a few days later. The man who shot her, Joshua Phillips was convicted of second degree murder last year. He was sentenced to serve 40 years.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Trump said this will be an automatic additional charge.
“We’re not going to hear you in court say, ‘I didn’t mean for anybody to die,’ It doesn’t matter. The consequences are your’s and you will be treated under the law as if you planned and intended that death,” Trump said during his remarks on the floor about the bill.
Johnson’s mother, Sheryl Johnson, testified at a committee hearing earlier this week in support of the bill. She said Phillips was a bad person who wanted to end her daughter’s life.
“He had no malice. He had no premeditation. The minute he laid his hands on her gun, he knew he was going to kill her, but the jury just couldn’t see that,” she said.
Johnson said Cassie was a good police officer and didn’t deserve to die.
“Everything she did was by the book. She did it right. She wasn’t mean. She wasn’t disrespectful. She was trying to do her job,” she said.
Trump said Friday there are people who are willing to be disobedient.
“Don’t care whether it goes sideways. Don’t care whether people get hurt or killed. The message this bill sends, Mr. President, is–not here in West Virginia–you don’t get to do that,” Trump said.
Senator Vince Deeds, R-Greenbrier, a retired state police trooper, praised Johnson for giving her all in the line of duty.
“(She) gave a full measure of devotion and dedication to the citizens of West Virginia,” Deeds said. “Cassie fulfilled the great scripture where it’s written in John 13:15, ‘Greater love has no one than this than to lay down one’s life for their friends.'”
The bill now goes to the House of Delegates for consideration.