Execution of Missouri inmate Marcellus Williams set after prosecutor says theres new evidence to consider
Missouri is set to execute a death row inmate even though the prosecutors who originally convicted him have now raised serious doubts about his guilt.
Missouri is set to execute a death row inmate even though the prosecutors who originally convicted him have now raised serious doubts about his guilt.
Marcellus Khaliifah Williams, 55, is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on Tuesday, despite the fact that the St. Louis County prosecutors office - which originally secured his conviction in 2001 - has filed a motion to vacate the conviction.
Williams is accused of killing Felicia Lisha Gayle, newspaper reporter who was found stabbed to death in her home in 1998.
But prosecutors have expressed concerns about the lack of DNA evidence linking Williams to the 1998 killing of Gayle. They have also argued that Williams did not receive a fair trial.
Missouri is set to execute a death row inmate even though the prosecutors who originally convicted him have now raised serious doubts about his guilt
Williams was accused of killing Felicia Lisha Gayle, newspaper reporter who was found stabbed to death in her home in 1998
The family of Lisha Gayle also agreed to a deal that would see Williams sentenced to life in prison instead of being executed.
However, Missouris supreme court and governor refused to grant a stay of execution following the numerous appeal efforts based on what his attorneys describe as new evidence.
Gov. Mike Parson had been asked to convert Williams sentence to life in prison, while the state Supreme Court was asked to grant a stay.
Missouris Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey is fighting to allow the execution to go forward over these objections.
The public doesnt want this execution to move forward. The victims family doesnt want this execution to move forward and the St Louis county prosecuting attorneys office doesnt want this execution to move forward, Jonathan Potts, one of Williamss attorneys told The Guardian.
The attorney generals office, who had nothing to do with this whatsoever, are the ones who are trying to lead him to the death chamber. Its pretty startling and extraordinary.
Wesley Bell, the Democratic prosecuting attorney in St Louis Bell said in a statement to the outlet Monday evening that the St Louis prosecutors office will continue to do everything in our power to save his life.
Even for those who disagree on the death penalty, when there is a shadow of a doubt of any defendants guilt, the irreversible punishment of execution should not be an option.
Potts also claimed the case would cause mistrust in the system but Williams has not given up hope.
The only way you can create public confidence in the justice system is if the system is willing to admit its own mistakes … The public is seeing the justice system at its most dysfunctional here.
Williams and Potts both said that he is someone who has never given up hope, The Guardian reported.
Last week, Attorneys Williams continued to plead to the US Supreme Court to halt his death.
His attorneys are now arguing Missouri Gov. Michael Parson trampled upon Williams due process rights by disbanding a board that was reviewing his case
They argued in court documents that Williams right to due process was trampled upon when Republican Missouri Gov. Michael Parson abruptly terminated an investigation into Williams case.
His predecessor, former Gov. Eric Greitens, had halted Williams execution indefinitely and formed a board of former judges to review his case and to determine whether Williams should be granted clemency.
The board investigated Williams case for the next six years, but it is unclear whether it ever reached a verdict before Parson suddenly disbanded it.
The Governors actions have violated Williams constitutional rights and created an exceptionally urgent need for the Courts attention, the lawyers argued in the petition.
Williams attorneys noted that even the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorneys Office announced earlier this year that there were constitutional errors in Williams original trial - including the removal of one prospective black juror due to race.
We have asked the US Supreme Court to stay Marcellus Williams execution on Tuesday based on a revelation by the trial prosecutor that he removed at least one Black juror before trial based on his race, said Tricia Rojo Bushnell, an attorney for Mr. Williams.
We were astonished to learn that part of the reason for striking a juror was because the juror was a young Black man with glasses, so that he and Mr. Williams looked like they were brothers.
Under our Constitution, there is a right to a fair trial before a jury of our peers. The prosecutor removed this juror because he looked like Mr. Williams peer. St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell has confessed constitutional error due to this racial bias during jury selection. We hope the Supreme Court will stay Mr. Williams execution based on this new evidence of racial bias and the other serious doubts about the integrity of Mr. Williams conviction, Bushnell said.
These would be key issues for the Board of Inquirys consideration in whether to recommend clemency instead of execution - if the Governor had not wrongly dissolved the board, the petition says.
Williams had previously filed a civil action challenging Parsons dissolution, and a trial court ruled that the governor exceeded his authority under state law and deprived Williams of his due process rights, according to the St. Louis-Post Dispatch.
But the Missouri Supreme Court disagreed, and held that prisoners have no due process rights in clemency proceedings - prompting Parson to set Williams September 24 execution date.
Prosecutors at Williams original trial claimed that Williams broke into Gayles home on August 11, 1998 and stabbed her 43 times with a butcher knife before stealing her purse and her husbands laptop
Prosecutors at Williams original trial have said that Williams broke into Gayles home on August 11, 1998, heard water running in the shower and grabbed a butcher knife.
When she came downstairs, Gayle was stabbed 43 times and her purse and her husbands laptop were stolen.
Authorities said Williams then stole a jacket to conceal blood on his shirt, prompting his girlfriend at the time to ask him why he would wear a jacket on a hot day.
That girlfriend later reported that she saw the stolen laptop in Williams car and he sold it to a neighbor a day or two later.
Prosecutors also cited testimony from Henry Cole, wo shared a jail cell with Williams in 1999 when Williams was in prison on unrelated charges.
Cole told prosecutors Williams confessed to the killing and offered details about it.
But defense attorneys countered by saying both Williams girlfriend and Cole were convicted of felonies and wanted a $10,000 reward for information about Gayles death.
Questions have since emerged about the integrity of that trial - which lead to Williams conviction - with Democrat St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell citing concerns about DNA evidence on the butcher knife as he requested a hearing challenging Williams guilt earlier this year.
He said that the evidence indicated that someone elses DNA was on the murder weapon.
But just days before an August 21 hearing, new testing showed the DNA evidence was spoiled because members of the prosecutors office touched the knife without gloves before the original 2001 trial.
St Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell cited concerns about DNA evidence on the butcher knife as he requested a hearing challenging Williams guilt earlier this year
Attorneys with the Midwest Innocence Project then reached an agreement with the prosecutors office under which Williams would enter a no-contest plea to first-degree murder in exchange for a new sentence of life in prison without parole.
Judge Bruce Hilton signed off on the agreement, as did Gayles family.
But at the behest of Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey, the Missouri Supreme Court blocked the agreement and ordered Hilton to proceed with an evidentiary hearing.
The judge then ruled on September 12 that the first-degree murder conviction and death sentence would stand.
[Williams] remaining evidence amounts to nothing more than re-packaged arguments about evidence that was available at trial and involved in Williams unsuccessful direct appeal and post-conviction challenges, Hilton ruled.
There is no basis for a court to find that Williams is innocent, and no court has made such a finding, he continued.
Still, Parsons office is being inundated with requests to stay Williams execution.
The NAACP, for example, wrote to the governor arguing that the death penalty has been historically applied in a racially disparate manner particularly in Missouri.
Killing Mr. Williams, a black man who was wrongfully convicted of killing a white woman, would amount to a horrible miscarriage of justice and a perpetuation of the worse of Missouris past, NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson and Missouri State Conference President Nimrod Chapel Jr. wrote.
US Rep. Cori Bush also sent her own letter to Parson, urging him to stop Williams execution.
Activists are pressuring Gov Parson to stay Williams execution next week
As lawmakers, we are committed to building a Missouri that is a beacon of justice, and we strive daily to represent the needs and demands of Missourians across the state, she wrote in a letter shared to X.
For this reason, we are urging you to immediately commute Mr. Williams sentence and halt his execution.
She then went on to highlight the efforts Williams attorneys have made to prove his innocence, saying executing him would be a grave injustice and would do serious and lasting harm.
A spokesman for Parson said attorneys for the governors office have met with Williams legal team and the governor will announce a decision at a later date - typically at least one day before the scheduled execution.
But Parson, a former county sheriff, has been in office for 11 executions and has never granted clemency.
If Williams were to die by lethal injection next week, his death would mark the third execution in Missouri just this year, and the 14th nationwide.
