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A person who kidnapped a 6-year-old Missouri woman and beat her to dying at an deserted manufacturing facility 20 years in the past was put to dying Tuesday night, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court docket rejected a request to dam the execution over arguments he was mentally incompetent.
Johnny Johnson, 45, obtained a deadly injection dose of pentobarbital at a state jail in Bonne Terre and was pronounced useless at 6:33 p.m. CDT, authorities stated. He was convicted of the July 2002 killing of Casey Williamson within the St. Louis space suburb of Valley Park.
Johnson, who had schizophrenia, expressed regret in a short handwritten assertion launched by the Division of Corrections hours earlier than being executed.
“God Bless. Sorry to the folks and household I harm,” Johnson’s assertion stated.
As he lay on his again with a sheet as much as his neck, Johnson turned his head to the left, showing to hearken to his religious adviser shortly earlier than the injection started. He then confronted ahead together with his eyes closed, with no additional bodily response.
Amongst these witnessing Johnson’s execution have been a number of members of the woman’s household and the previous prosecutor and police investigator who dealt with his case.
The U.S. Supreme Court docket, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor and two different justices dissenting, rejected a late request to remain the execution.
In latest appeals, Johnson’s attorneys have stated the inmate has had delusions concerning the satan utilizing his dying to carry concerning the finish of the world.
“The Court docket as we speak paves the way in which to execute a person with documented psychological sickness earlier than any court docket meaningfully investigates his competency to be executed,” Sotomayor and the opposite dissenting justices wrote in a press release when the keep was rejected. “There isn’t a ethical victory in executing somebody who believes Devil is killing him to carry concerning the finish of the world.”
Former St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch known as the delusions “nonsense” and stated Johnson inflicted “unspeakable horrors” upon Casey.
“He is received some points — important points,” McCulloch stated moments earlier than witnessing the execution. However “he knew precisely what he was doing.”
The woman’s disappearance from her hometown of Valley Park on July 26, 2002, had set off a frantic search earlier than her physique was discovered.
Casey’s mom had been greatest pals in childhood with Johnson’s older sister and even helped babysit him. After Johnson attended a barbecue the evening earlier than the killing, Casey’s household let him sleep on a sofa within the residence the place additionally they have been sleeping.
Within the morning, Johnson lured the woman — nonetheless in her nightgown — to the deserted glass manufacturing facility, even carrying her on his shoulders on the stroll to the dilapidated website, based on court docket paperwork. When he tried to sexually assault her, Casey screamed and tried to interrupt free. 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, based on authorities.
“It was extra violent and brutal than any case I’ve ever seen,” stated former St. Louis County murder investigator Paul Neske, who questioned Johnson at size the day of Casey’s homicide and witnessed his execution.
After a search by first responders and volunteers, Casey’s physique was present in a pit, buried underneath rocks and particles, lower than a mile (kilometer) from her residence.
At Johnson’s trial, protection legal professionals introduced testimony exhibiting their consumer — an ex-convict who had been launched from a state psychiatric facility six months earlier than the crime — had stopped taking his schizophrenia remedy and was performing unusually within the days earlier than the slaying.
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. A 3-judge federal appeals court docket panel final week short-term halted execution plans, however the full eighth U.S. Circuit Court docket of Appeals reinstated it. Johnson’s attorneys then filed appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court docket centered round his competency to be executed.
Gov. Mike Parson on Monday denied a request to scale back Johnson’s sentence to life in jail. 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 the governor urging the execution be carried out to “ship the message that it’s not okay to terrorize and homicide a baby.” Steele stated grief from Casey’s dying led to harmful results amongst different relations.
“He did one thing horrible. He took a life away from a very harmless little one, and there must be penalties for that,” Steele stated not too long ago, talking with The Related Press.
The household has organized group security festivals in Casey’s reminiscence, together with a July 22 occasion that drew a pair hundred folks. The household gave away dozens of kid identification kits together with security suggestions involving fireplace, water and bicycles, amongst different objects.
The execution was the sixteenth within the U.S. this 12 months, together with three beforehand in Missouri, 5 in Texas, 4 in Florida, two in Oklahoma and one in Alabama.
“It has been a troublesome day, and a troublesome 21 years,” Steele stated in a press release after witnessing the execution. “We are going to proceed to honor our candy Casey’s reminiscence by doing our greatest to make a distinction within the lives of different kids.”
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