A 19-year-old woman banned from watching her dad's execution has admitted the "justice system failed me."
Khorry Ramey, from Missouri, saw her father Kevin Johnson, 37, for the last time on Tuesday before he was executed by lethal injection for killing a Missouri police officer in 2005.
Prison guards would not let the father and daughter hug as she brought along his two month-old grandson, Kaius.
Khorry was just 2 when Johnson was locked up but the pair formed a close relationship over the years through letters, visits and emails.
She told NBC : "We had a really emotional moment. He said he felt like he failed me as a father. We were able to get everything off our chests."
Hours later Johnson, who was 19 at the time of his arrest, was killed by lethal injection. His daughter was unable to watch due to a Missouri law which requires witnesses to be at least 21.
Khorry tried to appeal to a federal court in Kansas to change the law but she was told she couldn't watch her dad's lethal injection execution.
This is despite other states having no age requirement or a minimum age of 18.
She claims watching her dad make her final breath would have helped her grieving process after her mum died when she was just 4.
Khorry witnessed mum, Dana Ramey, being shot by her former boyfriend in 2007.
The daughter filed an emergency motion with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union who argued the age requirement served no safety purpose and violates her constitutional rights.
U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes denied the motion ruling on Friday evening stating that Ramey’s constitutional rights would not be violated by the law.
She said it was "crazy" that a 19-year-old can sentenced to the death penalty but someone her age can't be with their dad for his last breath.
Witnesses for the execution included Johnson's spiritual adviser Reverend Darryl Gray, a civil rights activist in St. Louis, who was allowed to stay by the prisoner's side as the lethal injection went in.
Mr Gray said they spoke for ten minutes before he was sentenced to death. He revealed he wanted people to know he was "sorry" for killing the officer.
He said he died with "dignity" and "wasn't angry." The reverend read out the Bible as Johnson was executed with pentobarbital.
