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JEFFESON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A person who kidnapped a 6-year-old woman and beat her to dying at an deserted glass manufacturing unit was scheduled to be executed Tuesday in Missouri, as his attorneys pressed claims that he’s mentally incompetent.
Johnny Johnson, 45, was convicted within the July, 26, 2002, killing of Casey Williamson, whose disappearance set off a frantic search in her hometown of Valley Park, a small suburb of St. Louis.
Casey’s mom had been finest buddies in childhood with Johnson’s older sister and had even helped babysit him. After Johnson attended a barbecue the night time earlier than the killing, Casey’s household let him sleep on a sofa within the dwelling the place in addition they had been sleeping.
Within the morning, Johnson lured the woman to the deserted manufacturing unit, even carrying her on his shoulders on the stroll to the dilapidated website. When he tried to sexually assault her, Casey screamed and tried to interrupt free. In response to courtroom paperwork, he killed her with a brick and a big rock, then washed off within the close by Meramec River. Johnson confessed that very same day to the crimes, in response to authorities.
After a search involving first responders and volunteers, Casey’s physique was present in a pit lower than a mile (kilometer) from her dwelling, buried beneath rocks and particles.
At Johnson’s trial, protection legal professionals introduced testimony exhibiting that their shopper — an ex-convict who had been launched from a state psychiatric facility six months earlier — had stopped taking his schizophrenia treatment and was performing unusually within the days earlier than the slaying.
In current appeals, Johnson’s attorneys have stated he has delusions in regards to the satan utilizing his dying to convey in regards to the finish of the world. Additionally they famous he had been positioned on suicide watch in jail a pair years in the past after claiming to be a vampire.
In June, the Missouri Supreme Court docket denied an enchantment searching for to dam the execution on arguments that Johnson’s schizophrenia prevented him from understanding the hyperlink between his crime and the punishment. The Missouri Legal professional Common’s Workplace efficiently challenged the credibility of the psychiatric analysis and stated medical information point out that Johnson is ready to handle his psychological sickness by treatment.
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A 3-judge federal appeals courtroom panel final week non permanent halted the deliberate execution, however the full eighth U.S. Circuit Court docket of Appeals reinstated it. Johnson’s attorneys then filed a number of appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court docket centered round his competency to be executed.
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Monday denied a clemency request to cut back Johnson’s sentence to life in jail.
“Johnny Johnson’s crime is without doubt one of the most horrific murders that has come throughout my desk,” Parson, a former sheriff, stated in an announcement.
The clemency petition by Johnson’s attorneys stated Casey’s father, Ernie Williamson, opposed the dying penalty.
However Casey’s nice aunt, Della Steele, wrote an emotional plea to Parson urging him to proceed with the execution to “ship the message that it isn’t okay to terrorize and homicide a toddler.” Steele stated within the message that the grief from Casey’s dying led to damaging results amongst different members of the family.
“He did one thing horrible. He took a life away from a very harmless youngster, and there need to be penalties for that,” Steele advised The Related Press.
Steele has led a wide range of group efforts to honor Casey. Via years of fundraising, Casey’s household offered $500 scholarships or financial savings bonds to all 65 college students of the senior class of Valley Park Excessive College in 2014, the 12 months Casey would have graduated.
The household additionally has organized group security gala’s in Casey’s reminiscence, together with a July 22 occasion that drew a pair hundred individuals. They gave away dozens of kid identification kits together with security ideas involving fireplace, water and bicycles, amongst different gadgets.
“Lots of children from Casey’s class had been there with their youngsters. It was good to see, but it surely positively makes you suppose,” Steele stated. “They’re pushing their strollers with their couple of children and also you suppose, `That’s the place she ought to be.’”
The scheduled execution can be the sixteenth within the U.S. this 12 months. Along with three earlier executions in Missouri, 5 have been carried out in Texas, 4 in Florida, two in Oklahoma and one in Alabama. There have been 18 executions in six U.S. states final 12 months.
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Related Press author Jim Salter contributed to this report from O’Fallon, Missouri.
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