Post by CCADP on Aug 30, 2005 18:04:14 GMT -5
BONNE TERRE, Mo. - A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals on Tuesday granted a stay of execution for a Missouri man
scheduled to be put to death early Wednesday.
The appeals court panel voted 2-1 to stay until Sept. 8 the execution
of Timothy Johnston. Attorney General Jay Nixon then asked the full
appeals court to overturn the stay, said Scott Holste, a spokesman
for Nixon.
Johnston, 44, convicted of beating his wife to death in 1989, was
scheduled to die by injection at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday at the state
prison in Bonne Terre.
He asked the appeals court to consider the case after a federal judge
last week ruled that the state's three-drug method of lethal
injection does not violate Johnston's constitutional right against
cruel and unusual punishment.
"Obviously he's pretty happy, but he is aware that this could be
dissolved, so he's cautiously optimistic," Johnston's attorney, Chris
McGraugh, said.
No reason was given for granting the stay. In a dissenting opinion,
Judge Pasco Bowman wrote that Missouri's execution protocol "has been
carefully designed to avoid the infliction of pain and that any
chance the carrying out of the protocol will in fact cause Johnston
any pain at all is virtually nil."
Gov. Matt Blunt was also considering Johnston's clemency request.
Johnston declined to be interviewed.
The execution would be the fourth in Missouri this year and the 65th
since the death penalty was reinstated in 1989.
Johnston and his wife, Nancy, began arguing at a St. Louis bar on
June 30, 1989. Former prosecutor Joseph Warzycki said Nancy Johnston
became scared of her husband and went to the car to drive away.
Johnston jumped on top of the car and eventually pulled his wife from
it, then kicked her repeatedly, Warzycki said. He took her home and
beat her severely in front of her 11-year-old son.
With his wife's lifeless body sprawled on the floor, Johnston called
paramedics who arrived to find the sidewalk and porch covered in
blood. Inside, they found Nancy Johnston dead, her face and torso
swollen and bloodied.
An autopsy revealed a broken nose, collarbone and ribs; bruising and
tearing in her heart, liver and spleen; injuries to her head, face,
scalp and lips. Bleeding under the skin confirmed she was alive
throughout her severe beating.
"It was just barbaric," Warzycki said.
Johnston at first blamed a motorcycle gang. He later confessed,
accusing his wife of infidelities.
Johnston has expressed "considerable regret" over the crime, his
attorney, Chris McGraugh, said. He said the couple had long had a
volatile relationship.
In addition to abusing alcohol since adolescence, Johnston had brain
damage caused in part by alcohol abuse and in part by head injuries
suffered over his lifetime, McGraugh said.
Johnston had several run-ins with police - mostly peace disturbance,
McGraugh said - but no felony record before the murder. But Warzycki,
who left the St. Louis circuit attorney's office earlier this year to
become a federal judge in Peoria, Ill., said the only reason Johnston
had no previous convictions was because people were too scared of him
to press charges.
"He was violent, no doubt about it," Warzycki said.
www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/12514365.htm
of Appeals on Tuesday granted a stay of execution for a Missouri man
scheduled to be put to death early Wednesday.
The appeals court panel voted 2-1 to stay until Sept. 8 the execution
of Timothy Johnston. Attorney General Jay Nixon then asked the full
appeals court to overturn the stay, said Scott Holste, a spokesman
for Nixon.
Johnston, 44, convicted of beating his wife to death in 1989, was
scheduled to die by injection at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday at the state
prison in Bonne Terre.
He asked the appeals court to consider the case after a federal judge
last week ruled that the state's three-drug method of lethal
injection does not violate Johnston's constitutional right against
cruel and unusual punishment.
"Obviously he's pretty happy, but he is aware that this could be
dissolved, so he's cautiously optimistic," Johnston's attorney, Chris
McGraugh, said.
No reason was given for granting the stay. In a dissenting opinion,
Judge Pasco Bowman wrote that Missouri's execution protocol "has been
carefully designed to avoid the infliction of pain and that any
chance the carrying out of the protocol will in fact cause Johnston
any pain at all is virtually nil."
Gov. Matt Blunt was also considering Johnston's clemency request.
Johnston declined to be interviewed.
The execution would be the fourth in Missouri this year and the 65th
since the death penalty was reinstated in 1989.
Johnston and his wife, Nancy, began arguing at a St. Louis bar on
June 30, 1989. Former prosecutor Joseph Warzycki said Nancy Johnston
became scared of her husband and went to the car to drive away.
Johnston jumped on top of the car and eventually pulled his wife from
it, then kicked her repeatedly, Warzycki said. He took her home and
beat her severely in front of her 11-year-old son.
With his wife's lifeless body sprawled on the floor, Johnston called
paramedics who arrived to find the sidewalk and porch covered in
blood. Inside, they found Nancy Johnston dead, her face and torso
swollen and bloodied.
An autopsy revealed a broken nose, collarbone and ribs; bruising and
tearing in her heart, liver and spleen; injuries to her head, face,
scalp and lips. Bleeding under the skin confirmed she was alive
throughout her severe beating.
"It was just barbaric," Warzycki said.
Johnston at first blamed a motorcycle gang. He later confessed,
accusing his wife of infidelities.
Johnston has expressed "considerable regret" over the crime, his
attorney, Chris McGraugh, said. He said the couple had long had a
volatile relationship.
In addition to abusing alcohol since adolescence, Johnston had brain
damage caused in part by alcohol abuse and in part by head injuries
suffered over his lifetime, McGraugh said.
Johnston had several run-ins with police - mostly peace disturbance,
McGraugh said - but no felony record before the murder. But Warzycki,
who left the St. Louis circuit attorney's office earlier this year to
become a federal judge in Peoria, Ill., said the only reason Johnston
had no previous convictions was because people were too scared of him
to press charges.
"He was violent, no doubt about it," Warzycki said.
www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/12514365.htm
