Parson denies Johnny Johnson’s clemency request; attorneys ask US Supreme Court to halt execution
ST. LOUIS — Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Monday afternoon denied Johnny Johnson’s clemency request as his defense attorneys turned to the U.S. Supreme Court to stop his execution.
Johnny A. Johnson
Johnson, 45, was convicted of killing 6-year-old Casey Williamson 21 years ago after luring the child out of her house. The child died in an abandoned glass factory along the Meramec River after she fought back against his attempt to sexually assault her. Williamson’s family, who had known Johnson most of his life, had let him sleep on their couch the night before.
Johnson is set to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the state prison in Bonne Terre.
Parson said he received numerous letters “seeking justice for Casey.”
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“Johnny Johnson’s crime is one of the most horrific murders that has come across my desk,” Parson said in a statement. “Casey was an innocent young girl who bravely fought Johnson until he took her life. … Although this won’t bring her back, we hope that carrying out Johnson’s sentence according to the court’s order may provide some closure for Casey’s loved ones.”
Johnson has been in custody since the day he killed Williamson. A jury in January 2005 took about three hours to find him guilty of first-degree murder, along with armed criminal action, kidnapping and attempted rape. In March of that year, a judge sentenced him to die by lethal injection and told the court it was “perhaps the most heinous crime” he had ever presided over.
Casey Williamson
Johnson’s lawyers have argued that his execution would violate the U.S. Constitution because he is incompetent and does not understand why he is being killed. Attorneys say Johnson “suffers from a schizophrenia spectrum disorder, the likes of which affect only one third of one percent of the population in the United States.”
In their request for a stay Monday, attorneys continued to argue he is incompetent for execution and argued the “numerous dissents” from judges on the Missouri Supreme Court and Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals demonstrate that his claims of incompetency have merit.
In June, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled Johnson failed to prove that his claims of constitutional violations related to his sanity should stop his execution. Johnson then sought relief in federal court but was also denied.
But the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week voted 2-1 to halt his execution. The appeal was then reviewed by a panel of 10 of the 11 judges in that same circuit, and on Saturday, seven of those judges filed a judgment denying Johnson’s request.
On Saturday, U.S. Reps. Emanuel Cleaver II of Kansas City and Cori Bush of St. Louis called on Parson to halt Johnson’s execution.
Parson has denied clemency requests three times this year, approving the deaths of Amber McLaughlin on Jan. 3, Leonard Taylor on Feb. 7 and Michael Tisius on June 6.
Johnson’s siblings and then-girlfriend told the Post-Dispatch in 2002 that Johnson had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and began unraveling after his release from a mental hospital in January 2002. Johnson had stopped taking his medication because it made him “feel like a zombie.”
The first recorded use of the death penalty in Missouri was in 1810.
The 55 people Missouri has executed since 2000
Scott McLaughlin was convicted of murdering Beverly Guenther in Earth City. The inmate was living in prison in recent months as a woman named Amber McLaughlin, but filed appeals and signed a written statement at the execution with a previous name, Scott McLaughlin.
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