Columbia County District Attorney Bobby Christine says he is hitting the “alert button” and has released an open letter to the public appealing for signatures to keep Willie Lee Johnson, 61, in prison.
Johnson was 24 years old when convicted of a slew of crimes in the sexual assaults of two women and the attempted rape of a third. He was sentenced to five consecutive life-in-prison terms with an additional 40 years stacked on top.
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The Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole has agreed to grant tentative clemency, which means that, after 37 years, he may walk free.
In 1986, a jury found that Johnson had obtained a military uniform and disguised himself as a soldier at (then) Fort Gordon and preyed on the wives of men stationed at the base.
“This predator bound, gagged, violated, brutalized, raped, sodomized, burglarized and robbed members of our community, one of them was four months pregnant,” Christine said in his letter.
Johnson’s crimes were not spur of the moment, impulsive acts. He targeted specific women and developed a ruse to gain their trust.
As the crimes progressed, so did the violence, according to the prosecution’s investigative file and a transcript of Johnson’s 1986 trial in the then Augusta Judicial Circuit Superior Court, both obtained via an open record request.
Law enforcement would learn after Johnson’s arrest that his first possible attempt at sexual assault occurred May 6, 1986, at a Grovetown home where he gained entry with a door-to-door salesman pitch for a household cleaner, Purple Passion.
Once inside, two women told officers he started taking off his clothes. When he refused the stop, the women left, and the man, whom one woman identified as Johnson, left a short time later with an apology.
On May 27, 1986, Johnson tried a different approach. Dressed in military fatigues and carrying a briefcase, Johnson, over a series of days, approached the Grovetown residences of three military families and gained entrance by acting like he was on official business. According to court documents, once he gained trust and entrance, he committed his brutal crimes.
Christine says that justice demands truth in sentencing and that Johnson’s five life terms were issued as consecutive, meaning end-to-end, one after another. Christine adds that the Board of Pardons and Paroles has a responsibility to protect the public and not nullify a jury’s decision and a judge’s sentence.
“Sexual predators are the least likely offenders to be rehabilitated, in my opinion. Georgians deserve better than to have Johnson returned to live among us,” Christine said.
The Justice Department agrees with Christine’s assertion; by analyzing the rates of incarcerated rapists and molesters returning to their old habits after being set free are almost six percentage points out of ten higher than any other crime empirically studied.
“Child molesters, rapists, and sex offenders overall are far more likely than non-sex offenders to recidivate,” the department states in it’s Sex Offender Management Assessment research brief.
Christine is urging citizens to go on the Georgia Department of Pardons and parole’s website, go to the “clemency and parole consideration” section on the right, under the picture image and use “Johnson, Willie L. 201177” as a reference.
“Keeping this community safe is a team effort. The Board will hear you…as will future predators looking for a community where they can victimize the innocent,” Christine wrote.
Here is electronic access to Christine’s letter:
