ST. LOUIS – A Missouri inmate set to be executed next week for the 2002 murder of a child has been given a temporary reprieve.
In a 2-1 vote, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on Tuesday granted a stay of execution for Johnny Johnson. This comes a month after the Missouri Supreme Court denied a request to overturn the execution.
Johnson’s attorneys also won the right to challenge his conviction based on grounds that he’s mentally incompetent.
Wednesday marks 21 years since Johnson beat Casey Williamson to death at the site of the old St. Louis Plate Glass Company in Valley Park. Williamson was 6. Johnson, who had been an acquaintance of the Williamson family, admitted killing Casey after she fought back when he attempted to sexually assault her.
Johnson was scheduled to die by lethal injection on Aug. 1.
But on Tuesday afternoon, demonstrators delivered a petition with approximately 3,000 signatures in the hope of halting the execution. Advocates say there were flaws in the case, since Johnson was never given the treatment he needed for developmental disabilities and mental illness.
“We’re set to execute Johnny Johnson, extensively because of a crime, but won’t follow the process to get a competency or clemency hearing and won’t listen to the people,” Nimrod Chapel Jr., president of the Missouri NAACP, said. “Today’s petition drop is about the will of the people being heard.
A spokesperson for Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said they will ask the appeals court to vacate the stay.
Governor Mike Parson has not commented on Johnson’s request for clemency.