State Supreme Court hears appeal in slaying of girl

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A lawyer for Johnny Johnson, sentenced to die for the murder of a 6-year-old girl, urged the state Supreme Court on Thursday to grant him a new trial because of claims that race was a factor in selecting the St. Louis County jury that sentenced him.

Attorney Deborah Wafer told the seven-judge court that although prosecutors had cited other reasons, they struck two potential jurors -- an Asian woman and black man -- because of their race.

Assistant attorney general Richard Starnes said the two potential jurors were eliminated because prosecutors believed they would tend to be more sympathetic toward the defense. Starnes said the man worked with troubled youths and the woman was a student and thus likely lacked the life experiences that prosecutors desired.

He told the court that the law "doesn't say you can't use generalizations on people for strikes. It says you can't use generalizations based on race and gender."

Wafer pointed to last week's ruling by the Missouri Supreme Court that prosecutors had disqualified potential jurors based on race in a different death penalty case also coming from St. Louis County. Prosecutors there said the disqualifications weren't because of race, but the high court in a 4-3 decision disagreed and ordered a new trial.

Wafer said that although the level of racial bias was not necessarily equal, it was present in both cases.

"This really tests whether this court will allow just a little discrimination because there were a few bad strikes," she said.

Defense attorneys argued that Johnson had suffered from mental illness since he was a teenager and was sexually abused when he was a young child.

There was no ruling Thursday.

Judge Stephen Limbaugh Jr. was the most vocal critic of Wafer's arguments, interrupting her immediately following her standard introduction to the court in order to ask whether she even had Johnson's permission to appeal the case. Johnson had suggested in the past that he wanted to be put to death.

Later, he said Wafer's argument focused on a small part of the case and questioned whether there would have been any difference if potential jurors had been informed of the definition of first-degree murder.

He said the proof that Johnson deliberated before killing Casey was "overwhelming," rendering an explanation of what constitutes first degree murder irrelevant.

"That's a tough sell given the facts of this case. I don't know how it could be a viable defense," he said.

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Case is SC86689, State vs. Johnny A Johnson.

On the Net:

Supreme Court: http://www.courts.mo.gov/sup/index.nsf