Missouri Executes Child Murderer

An ex-con who brutally murdered a 6-year-old girl in 2002 died peacefully via lethal injection last night in Missouri.  David Lieb of the Associated Press reports that 45-year-old Johnny Johnson had been released from prison six months before he lured Casey Williamson, the daughter of a family friend, to an abandoned factory, attempted to rape her, then beat her to death with a brick when she resisted.  Police found her body buried under rocks in a pit less than a mile from her home.  At trial and on appeal Johnson’s attorneys argued that his schizophrenia prevented his understanding the link between his crime and his punishment.  But just before his execution, Johnson disproved that claim by apologizing for the murder.  A hail-Mary appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was rejected with Associate Justices Sonja Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Katanji Brown Jackson voting to stay his execution.  Sixteen murderers have been executed in the United States so far this year.  Last year eight murderers had been executed by August 1.