This development in Johnson's case — along with the multiple appeals he has filed over the years delaying his execution — is among the issues Judd is expected to address at a news conference this afternoon.

Johnson, 60, was convicted for the killing of Polk Deputy Theron Burnham, 27; Winter Haven taxi driver William D. Evans, 55; and Lakeland painter Darrell Ray Beasley, 21, during an all-night crime spree on Jan. 9, 1981.

After smoking marijuana and injecting crystal methedrine, he told a couple of friends he was going to go out and get more drugs and money even if he had to shoot someone, court records show.

The three men were killed within a five-hour period. Evans was robbed and killed and his taxi set on fire in a citrus grove in Winter Haven. Beasley was robbed and slain after he gave his killer a ride from a Lakeland restaurant, and Burnham was shot to death with his own gun when he confronted the suspect on a desolate road near Lakeland Municipal Airport.

At an Oct. 28 hearing, his lawyer, Martin McClain, argued Johnson's three murder convictions and death sentences should be reversed because newly discovered evidence — notes written by a prosecutor in 1981 — shows a jailhouse snitch had been improperly allowed to testify at trial.

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

Judd's office launched an online petition on Sept. 30 asking Gov. Charlie Crist to sign Johnson's death warrant. The campaign on GoPetition.com has garnered more than 2,200 signatures.

Crist signed Johnson's death warrant on Oct. 7, exactly a week after the sheriff's office posted its online petition, but the governor's office said there was no connection.

In its short order announcing the stay of execution, the state 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 had been ordered for an inmate who has not yet had a habeas corpus hearing in federal court since a 1996 law permitted death warrants without expiration dates.

Stay with TBO.com for updates.

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