Sometimes, you can start in the same home — in this case, a house in Covington, Tennessee — and end up different places.

Jason Johnson and Cynthia Vaughn grew up together. In 1984, the two siblings lost both their parents: Their mother, Connie Johnson, they lost to murder. They lost their father, who had adopted Vaughn when he married Connie, when he was condemned to death row for that murder.

Today, days before their father is expected to be executed for the killings, the siblings couldn't be further apart.

Jason Johnson, 38, plans to see his father executed on May 16, “not to see him die,” he said, “just to see my family actually have some closure.”

Cynthia Vaughn, Jason Johnson's half-sister, wants her adoptive father to live. She’s even begged the governor for mercy.

Clemency:Victim's daughter seeks mercy from Gov. Bill Lee for death row inmate Donnie Edward Johnson

Donnie Johnson, investigators revealed, had shoved a plastic trash bag down his wife’s throat, suffocating her to death, and left her body in a mall parking lot just weeks before Christmas.

At the time, Jason Johnson was 4 and Vaughn was 7. Afterward, they went to live with an aunt, but have since grown apart.

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A story of transformation

Donnie Johnson, who now goes by Don, converted to Christianity behind bars, his attorneys wrote in an application for clemency filed in March.

The man who admits to killing his wife is now an elder in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

But Jason Johnson believes his father’s story of redemption is all a con.

“He’s an evil human being. He can talk Christianity and all that,” he said. “That is all my father is. That’s all he’s ever been, is a con man.”

Donnie Johnson:He killed his wife in 1984. Here's a timeline of the crime.

Don Johnson himself acknowledges that he has been a con man: His attorneys said so in his petition for clemency. But the petition also said he was transformed.

And Vaughn said she believes that transformation. The petition for clemency hinges on how Vaughn, who declined through her father’s attorneys to speak to reporters, has forgiven her father.

“Over these past few years, Don has become one of my last connections to my mother, and his execution will not feel like justice to me,” Vaughn wrote in an opinion piece for The Tennessean. “It will feel like losing my mother all over again.”

Vaughn remembered more of what happened after they moved in with an aunt, Jason Johnson said — but he said he remembers growing up and being made fun of because his father had killed his mother.

Despite his childhood, Jason Johnson wants people to know that he turned out alright: He runs equipment for a construction company in Alabama and has two children. He was happily married for 16 years until his wife passed away in February.

How siblings arrived at opposing conclusions

For Vaughn, it was a 2012 meeting with her stepfather that took her from hating him to letting the anger go and finding healing, she wrote.

Don Johnson, who answered written questions from the USA TODAY Network - Tennessee through his attorneys, said meeting with Vaughn was “the most humbling experience” of his life.

“(My relationship with Cynthia) is one of the richest blessings a father could hope for,” he said. “Something I carry with joy in my heart, each and every day.”

Jason Johnson also met his father in person while he was on death row — several times, around 1999. He called him too, he said, and wanted to give him a chance.

His meetings didn’t end like Vaughn’s. Rather, he said his father tried to control his life, and eventually he cut ties.

In his own words: 'If my work is done, then I am content," death row inmate says

An estranged family

Don Johnson wrote that he is estranged from his son.

“I pray that one day he can forgive me for my wrongs, for my responsibility for the loss of his mother, and for my inability to be the father he so deserves,” he wrote.

Jason Johnson said he doesn’t understand his sister’s point of view — after all, she hated their father passionately for years. Now, the two siblings aren’t in contact.

When he learned that she was part of the clemency petition, Jason Johnson called the governor’s office to tell them another side, he said.

“If he found redemption, that doesn’t matter, that’s between him and God,” Jason Johnson said. “His forgiveness is to come from the Lord and his redemption is to come from the Lord, not the government. The Bible also says, ‘An eye for an eye.’”

Katherine Burgess covers county government and the suburbs. She can be reached at katherine.burgess@commercialappeal.com or followed on Twitter @kathsburgess.