MISSOURI - Juvenile execution delayed: Missouri Supreme Court delays Christopher Simmons execution to June 5

The Missouri Supreme Court on Wednesday pushed back until June the scheduled execution date for Christopher Simmons -- an execution that death penalty opponents have been pushing hard to stop altogether.

 Simmons was originally scheduled to die by lethal injection May 1 at the Potosi Correctional Center. The Supreme Court set a new date of June 5. The court's order did not give a reason, and a spokeswoman said she did not know what prompted the decision.

 Simmons, who turns 26 Friday, was 17 when he and a 15-year-old accomplice broke into the home of Shirley Crook of Fenton in St. Louis County in 1993. During the robbery, the teen-agers tied her up and drove her to a train trestle over the Meramec River in Castlewood State Park. Court records said Simmons pushed Crook into the river. Her body was discovered the next day by fishermen.

 Several rallies have been held in St. Louis and Jefferson City asking Gov. Bob Holden to spare the life of Simmons, citing the fact that he was a juvenile at the time of the crime and that he suffers from schizotypal personality disorder.

 Since reinstating the death penalty in 1977, Missouri has sent to death row 4 people who were younger than 18 when they committed their crimes. Only 1, Fredrick Lashley, has been executed. He was put to death in 1993 for a murder 11 years earlier, when he was 17.

 Executions of criminals who were juveniles at the time of their crimes have come under scrutiny nationally.

 The death sentence of Heath Wilkins, who was 16 at the time of his crime, was reversed by the U.S Supreme Court in 1998. The case of Antonio Richardson, also 16 at the time of his crime, was stayed indefinitely by the U.S. Supreme Court last year.

 Simmons' attorney, Jennifer Brewer, recently testified before a state Senate committee in support of legislation raising Missouri's minimum age for defendants to face the death penalty to 18 instead of 16.

 Simmons was 1 of 4 Missouri inmates who appeared in a death row ad campaign by Italian clothier Benetton. Attorney General Jay Nixon sued the company.

 A settlement last summer called for Benetton to apologize to the families whose relatives were killed by inmates featured in the ads. It also required Benetton to donate $50,000 to the Missouri Crime Victims Compensation Fund.