Missouri death row inmate granted stay of execution following Catholic advocacy
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on Tuesday evening granted a stay of execution for Johnny Johnson, a St. Louis-area man who had been scheduled to die Aug. 1.
Catholics in St. Louis and across Missouri had advocated for a stay of Johnson’s execution, citing the Church’s teaching on the admissibility of the death penalty as well as arguments from Johnson’s attorneys that he is not mentally fit to understand his punishment.
Johnson, 45, was convicted of first-degree murder for killing 6-year-old Casey Williamson in 2002. His appeal for clemency was thrown out by the Missouri Supreme Court in June, and he was set to be executed by lethal injection prior to the court’s intervention. Johnson would have been the fourth person executed in Missouri this year.
The 2002 killing took place just across the train tracks from Sacred Heart Parish in the town of Valley Park, which is located off Interstate 44 in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Johnson, a friend of the Williamson family, had lured Casey to an abandoned glass factory and attempted to sexually assault her. When she tried to escape, he killed her with bricks and rocks and buried her body in a pit less than a mile from her home.
Father Robert “Rosy” Rosebrough, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish at the time, visited the Williamson family after Casey was killed to offer prayers, support, and the use of the parish church and cemetery at no cost, the St. Louis Review reported.
The Missouri Catholic Conference, which represents the state’s Catholic bishops, in a July 24 letter formally requested clemency on Johnson’s behalf, asking Republican Gov. Mike Parson to commute his sentence to life imprisonment without parole.