A 19-year-old young woman from Missouri asked a federal court to let her into a prison to watch her father’s execution, even though state laws do not allow anyone under 21 to witness an execution.

Kevin Johnson, 37, is scheduled to be executed on November 29 for murdering William McEntee, a Kirkwood Missouri police officer, in 2005, even though his lawyers have filed appeals for a judge to throw out the death penalty.

Johnson requested that his 19-year-old daughter, Khorry Ramey, come to his execution, and Ramey said that she wanted to attend.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed an emergency motion on Monday asking a federal court in Kansas City to allow the young woman into the execution room. The ACLU claims that the state law barring people under 21 violates Ramey’s constitutional rights and has no safety purpose.

In a court declaration, Ramey compared the execution to a terminal patient in a hospital. She said that if Johnson, whom she termed the most important person to her, was dying in a hospital, no one would bar her from sitting next to him in a hospital bed and comforting him until his death.

Ramey said that being by her father’s side would be good for her because it would be a part of her grieving process and give her peace of mind.

Although Johnson has been in prison since his daughter was two, they have built a close bond through numerous phone calls, visits, letters, and emails. Ramey brought her newborn son to meet his grandfather last month.

Anthony Rothert, an ACLU attorney, said that failure to attend the execution might cause Ramey irreparable psychological harm.

Johnson’s legal team has filed appeals for a judge to stop the execution. Although they don’t claim his innocence in the murder, his lawyers argue that the jury’s decision to seek the death penalty and the subsequent guilty verdict was fueled by racism. 

Johnson’s lawyers want the court to intervene because of his mental health history and the fact that he was only 19 at the time of the murder. In 2005, the Supreme Court banned the death penalty for offenders below 18 at the time of their crimes. However, the Missouri Attorney General’s office said there were no legitimate grounds for the court to intervene.

On July 5, 2005, the victim, police officer McEntee, a husband and father of three, and five other police officers were sent to serve a warrant to Johnson at his home for violating probation. At the time, 19-year-old Johnson was on probation for an assault on his girlfriend.

When the police arrived, Johnson woke his 12-year-old brother, who ran to his grandmother’s house next door. The boy suffered from a congenital heart defect and began seizing. According to Johnson, Officer McEntee blocked Johnson’s mother from entering the house and helping the boy, who died a short while later.

Later that same evening, Johnson encountered Officer McEntee as he was returning to the neighborhood. He shot the officer once and then approached him and shot him again.

Twenty inmates in Missouri are on death row, while sixteen have been executed in the US this year.