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Stay of execution issued for killer of Polk deputy

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The Associated Press

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 29, 2009

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd has waited 28 years for Paul Johnson's execution. It looks like he's going to have to wait a little longer.

The Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a stay of execution for Johnson, who was scheduled to be put to death Wednesday.

Johnson, 60, was convicted of fatally shooting a sheriff's deputy and two other people in 1981 in Polk County. His attorney, Martin McClain, argued that Johnson's three murder convictions and death sentences should be reversed because newly discovered evidence - notes written by a prosecutor in 1981 - shows that a jailhouse snitch had been improperly allowed to testify at trial.

Assistant Deputy Attorney General Candace Sabella said the notes were nothing new and that it was too late to bring them up. She also said other evidence is strong enough to sustain the death sentences without the snitch's testimony.

Judd launched an online petition Sept. 30 asking Gov. Charlie Crist to sign Johnson's death warrant. A week after a campaign on GoPetition.com garnered more than 2,050 signatures, Crist signed the warrant, though the governor's office says there was no connection.

In its short order announcing the stay of execution, the Supreme Court said the stay was being issued to consider the defense's claims of prosecutorial misconduct.

McClain said it's the first time an execution has been ordered for an inmate who has not had a habeas corpus hearing in federal court since passage in 1996 of a law permitting death warrants without expiration dates.

"It's obvious there are no standards," he said. "You have to have a principled way to distinguish between who gets executed and who doesn't." Getting the most signatures on petitions doesn't qualify, he said.

Judd was out of town but released a statement after hearing of the stay.

"There is no question of Paul Beasley Johnson's guilt; the only question is how long our criminal justice system will allow delay after delay to occur."

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