The state Supreme Court has issued an execution order for a former St. Louis man sentenced to death for the September 1995 murder of his neighbor. 43-year-old Michael Shane Worthington is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection early the morning of August 6 at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre.

Michael Shane Worthington (Courtesy; Missouri Department of Corrections)

Michael Shane Worthington (Courtesy; Missouri Department of Corrections)

Worthington was sentenced in 1999 for strangling 24-year-old Melinda Griffin to death in her apartment. Worthington had entered through a window he had cut the screen out of and strangled her to unconsciousness, then raped her until she woke up and struggled. He then beat her and strangled her to death.

Worthington was caught the next morning driving her car, which he had stolen along with her jewelry, credit cards and mobile phone. He confessed to the crime and DNA linked him to it.

Worthington could become the ninth inmate executed in Missouri since November. Missouri is next scheduled to execute John Middleton on July 16 for three drug-related murders in 1995.