A state court judge on Tuesday delayed Wednesday's scheduled execution of Marcus Ray Johnson to give his legal team the opportunity to see if DNA testing can be conducted on available biological evidence. Johnson sits on death row for the 1994 rape and murder of Angela Sizemore in Albany.
State prosecutors will appeal the order signed by Dougherty County Superior Court Judge Willie Lockette to the Georgia Supreme Court. Johnson had been scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection at 7 p.m. at the state prison in Jackson.
"I'm extremely gratified the court has recognized there's a capital case with a question of innocence with available biological evidence that can be tested with modern DNA methods," Brian Kammer, a lawyer for Johnson, said of Lockette's decision.
According to trial testimony, Johnson and Sizemore met at an Albany bar on March 24, 1994. She was drinking so heavily that the bartenders stopped serving her. Johnson later danced with Sizemore and they were seen leaving together.
Johnson said they had sex in a nearby vacant lot. He told investigators he and Sizemore got into an argument and punched her in the nose because she wanted to "snuggle" and he didn't. Johnson said he left Sizemore before she was attacked and mutilated.
Later that morning, Sizemore was found dead, stabbed 41 times, in her white Suburban parked on the other side of town. At trial, witnesses said they saw Johnson walking from the area where the Suburban was abandoned.
Kammer has said he believes DNA tests will show that others killed Sizemore after Johnson left the scene.
There is now evidence that can be tested for DNA that may "decisively" support Johnson's innocence claims or show there is a reasonable likelihood a jury would acquit him on the basis of the new evidence, Kammer wrote in a recently filed court motion. "If the saliva, hairs, tape lifts, fingernail clippings or Ms. Sizemore’s clothing reveal the DNA profile of another person, these would strongly suggest that a different perpetrator or perpetrators committed the crime."
Ken Hodges, Dougherty County's district attorney when Johnson was convicted, said there was substantial direct and circumstantial evidence, including Johnson's own statements and admissions. "All indicate he was the only person involved in this," Hodges said. "There is no evidence to suggest anyone else was involved."
Even if there is evidence to suggest someone else assisted Johnson, Hodges added, "It doesn't reduce his culpability at all."
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