Missouri executes man with controversial conviction
Marcellus Williams was executed Tuesday night in Missouri after the cancellation of his conviction, requested by the prosecutor himself, was rejected by the courts.
Marcellus Williams in 2017.
AFP
Two death row inmates were executed Tuesday in the southern United States, including Marcellus Williams, who had claimed his innocence for over 20 years, receiving significant support, including recently from the prosecutor’s office.
Marcellus Williams, 55, a Black man, was convicted in 2001 for the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle, a white former journalist, in the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri.
He was executed in the early evening by lethal injection, as was Travis Mullis, 38, who was convicted in Texas for the 2008 murder of his 3-month-old baby, according to the prison administrations of both states. This brings the total number of executions in the United States in 2024 to 16, including three since September 20, with two more scheduled for Thursday.
In Missouri, the victim was found stabbed 43 times with a kitchen knife during what appeared to be a botched robbery.
Inquiry Commission
Marcellus Williams, already convicted for robberies and burglaries, was ultimately indicted and sentenced to death based on the testimony of a former co-inmate and an ex-girlfriend, even though his DNA was found neither on the knife nor on any of the fingerprints, blood traces, or hair found at the crime scene.
His execution was suspended by the Missouri Supreme Court in 2015, and then in 2017 by the then-governor, Eric Greitens, who ordered the creation of an inquiry commission. This decision followed an analysis revealing that the male DNA found on the knife did not belong to Marcellus Williams.
But in 2023, his successor, Mike Parson, dissolved that commission before it could render its findings, and authorities resumed the process for his execution.
In the meantime, the local prosecutor initiated a cancellation procedure for the conviction in 2024, based in part on DNA analyses. On the eve of a recent hearing on this cancellation request, it was revealed that the DNA fingerprints found on the weapon belonged to two members of the prosecution team at the time.
However, Missouri justice definitively rejected this cancellation appeal on Monday, thus allowing the execution to proceed. Governor Parson announced on Tuesday that consequently he would grant neither a reprieve nor a commutation of sentence to Marcellus Williams, assuring in a statement that he “trusted in the integrity of the judicial system.”
“A Shameful Day”
British billionaire Richard Branson, who bought a full-page ad in the Kansas City Star on Monday to urge residents of the state to pressure their governor, lamented on X that it was “a shameful day for Missouri and for Governor Mike Parson who failed in his duty to protect an innocent man from injustice.”
The NAACP, the leading organization for the advocacy of Black Americans, and the local chapter of the influential organization “Innocence Project” that fights against wrongful convictions in the United States, rallied in support of Marcellus Williams.
Having exhausted all appeals at the Missouri level, his lawyers approached the Supreme Court of the United States on Monday to obtain a reprieve on the grounds that the jury selection that convicted him was discriminatory.
The jury consisted of 11 white jurors and only one Black juror following a controversial jury selection process. But the conservative majority Supreme Court rejected this request on Tuesday, against the opinion of the three progressive justices.
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 U.S. states. Six others (Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee) are observing a moratorium on executions at the governor’s decision.
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