Supreme Court sets execution date for man who killed 6-year-old

The Missouri Supreme Court en banc has set an execution date for a homeless man who was convicted of raping and killing a six-year-old girl in 2002. A St. Louis County Circuit Court jury found Johnny Johnson, who was 24-years old at the time of the killing, guilty of first-degree murder on March 7, 2005. The court sentenced Johnson to death.

Witnesses told St. Louis County police they saw Cassandra Williamson riding piggyback on a man near her home. Johnson had spent the previous night with the Williamson family. Her disappearance prompted a frantic search by law enforcement officials and volunteers. Williamson’s body was found in an abandoned glass factory less than a mile from her home on the afternoon of the morning she was kidnapped.

The Court said Johnson, now 45, had exhausted all of his appeals, including a petition for a writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court, which was denied. On April 19 the Court issued a Warrant of Execution for Johnson, instructing the Missouri Department of Corrections to carry out the death sentence within the 24-hour period beginning August 1, 2023.

The case is State v. Johnson, SC86689.