The body of executed prisoner Cecil Johnson will be returned to his family without the autopsy the state was seeking, a Nashville judge ruled this week.

The state of Tennessee executed Johnson two weeks ago for killing three people in 1980, including a 12-year-old boy.

His death set off a fresh round of legal wrangling between the state, which wanted an autopsy to prove the lethal injection had been administered properly, and Johnson's family, who wanted him to rest in peace.

Johnson, who spent half his life on death row, left a letter for the court, citing his strong religious convictions and his wish that "in no way is my body to be cut upon."

Attorneys for the state, however, insisted that an autopsy is the only way to prove that the death sentence was administered humanely.

On Wednesday, Davidson County Chancellor Russell T. Perkins ruled that the state had not presented a compelling reason to put its interests ahead of Johnson's religious belief.

An autopsy, Perkins said, "would impinge on the exercise of religious beliefs, genuinely held." He ordered the medical examiner's office to turn Johnson's body over to the family no later than 4 p.m. Friday.

Tennessee has executed five men in the past decade and Davidson County Medical Examiner Bruce Levy has performed autopsies on most of them, including inmates with religious objections to autopsies.

No matter how many precautions the state takes, Levy said, an autopsy is the only way to tell what really happened to Johnson in the moments leading up to death — and in the weeks before.

"I've experienced too many cases where the obvious cause of death turned out to be wrong," he said.

In February, the post-execution autopsy of convicted murderer Steve Henley found marijuana in his system — in spite of the fact that he had been under intense supervision on death row. Henley's final autopsy results are still pending the return of bloodwork from an out-of-state lab.

Johnson's attorneys presented sworn statements from the deceased and his wife, promising to waive their right to sue the state over the method of execution if the state would forgo the autopsy.

"I witnessed the execution of my husband. It was not a botched execution," Sarah Johnson wrote. "We only want this matter to come to a swift and peaceful end."

The Johnsons never challenged the lethal injection protocol, which involves administering three shots to the condemned — first a lethal dose of sedatives, then a muscle paralytic and a final fatal drug to stop the heart. Death-penalty opponents have argued that if the doses are administered improperly, the result could leave the victim paralyzed but aware and able to feel the final dose shutting down their heart.

The state will have the option of appealing Perkins' ruling before Friday afternoon.