On again – off again execution update

(A-P) – The planned execution of a 45-year-old Missouri man with schizophrenia is back on after an appellate court reversed course Saturday.

Johnny Johnson is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Tuesday at the state prison in Bonne Terre for killing 6-year-old Casey Williamson after trying to sexually assault her in 2002.

With questions swirling about his mental competency, the execution was halted last Tuesday by a divided three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court. But after the Missouri Attorney General’s Office asked that the full court reconsider, that decision was reversed in a 7-3 ruling.

The case will likely end up before the U.S. Supreme Court before the scheduled execution.