Arrest, Confession and Conviction
In December 1989, an article in The Atlanta Constitution questioned the deaths, and the cases were reopened. Investigators determined that each child's death was preceded seven to 10 days by marital problems between Johnson and Bowen.
On July 3, 1989, Johnson was arrested, and she confessed to killing two of her children. After confrontations with Bowen, Johnson would suffocate the children by rolling her 250-pound body on them as they slept. She claimed the motive was to punish her husband. Johnson claimed she was not responsible for the deaths of her two youngest children.
By the beginning of her trial in April 1990, Johnson had retracted her confession. On May 5, 1990, she was convicted of first-degree murder for the smothering deaths of three of her four children and sentenced to death. The sentence was later commuted to life on appeal. She is currently housed at Pulaski State Prison.
Read more about this topic: Martha Ann Johnson
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