Celeste Beard Johnson Death Sentence Upheld by Federal Appeals Court in Shocking Murder-for-Hire Case
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A federal appeals court in New Orleans upheld the death sentence of Celeste Beard Johnson, the Austin socialite convicted in a 2000 murder-for-hire plot that led to the fatal shooting of her millionaire husband, Steven Beard. The unanimous ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, issued on Thursday, rejected Johnson’s claims of ineffective legal counsel and procedural errors, affirming the punishment for her role in what prosecutors described as a cold and calculated scheme to claim a multimillion-dollar inheritance. The decision, spanning 47 pages, found that the evidence overwhelmingly supported her guilt in orchestrating the murder of her spouse, who was shot twice in his bed. Johnson, now 70, will remain on death row at the Mountain View Unit in Gatesville.