GOODING, Idaho -- Gooding County prosecutors are asking a judge to dismiss a request to be released from prison filed by a man who pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in the 1993 killing of a south-central Idaho couple.
Prosecutors filed their request late last month in 5th District Court asking Judge John Butler to dismiss the petition for relief filed in July by Robert Johnson, who wants his conviction overturned.
Johnson and his cousin, Thomas Petersen, in 1994 admitted killing 31-year-old Connie Allen and 33-year-old Ricky Mangum at the couple's home near Gooding. The couple was beaten, their throats slashed, and Allen was raped.
Johnson and Petersen pleaded guilty and avoided possible death penalties.
But now Petersen says he did the killings, not Johnson.
The Times-News reports that Gooding County authorities say Johnson raped Allen and didn't need to do the killing to be found guilty of Idaho's felony murder statute.
