Missouri Executes Marcellus Williams Despite DNA Evidence Suggesting His Innocence

Marcellus Williams. | Source: Image courtesy of Marcellus’ legal team

Missouri on Tuesday night executed a Black man who was serving a prison sentence for a murder in which the DNA evidence raised questions about his innocence.

Marcellus Williams, 55, was killed via lethal injection for the 1998 murder of Lisha Gayle, a reporter with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper, during a burglary.

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Williams’ last statement was shared on social media Tuesday night.

The Associated Press reported:

Williams was put to death despite questions his attorneys raised over jury selection at his trial and the handling of evidence in the case. His clemency petition focused heavily on how Gayle’s relatives wanted Williams’ sentence commuted to life without the possibility of parole.

“The family defines closure as Marcellus being allowed to live,” the petition stated. “Marcellus’ execution is not necessary.”

Last month, Gayle’s relatives gave their blessings to an agreement between the St. Louis County prosecuting attorney’s office and Williams’ attorneys to commute the sentence to life in prison. But acting on an appeal from Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s Office, the state Supreme Court nullified the agreement.

Social media posts calling Williams innocent were going viral in the days leading up to his execution.

Wiliams faced execution two other times, but both instances were called off. The first time in 2015, Williams’ legal team filed an appeal that pointed to DNA evidence they said cleared their client. However, the appeal was unsuccessful and Williams was re-scheduled to be executed in 2017. But in that instance, Republican Gov. Eric Greitens ordered a last-minute stay as Williams’ attorneys were making an 11th-hour appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

A nearly all-White jury convicted Williams of murdering Lisha Gayle. According to the prosecutor, Williams stabbed the 42-year-old woman 43 times in her home during a burglary.

Prosecutors won a conviction even though there was no physical evidence linking Williams to the crime. The footprints at the scene and hair fibers did not match him. What’s more, there were no eyewitnesses to the murder.

The DNA found on the murder weapon does not match Williams’ and instead belongs to an unknown male.

Williams has always maintained his innocence.

It was in that context that the superconservative U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday denied a stay of execution for Williams.

Cornel West was the only presidential candidate to speak out against plans to execute Williams. West and his vice presidential running mate Melina Abdulla appealed specifically to Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, to “immediately intervene” and cited in a public statement the “racism and unjust history of executions” in the U.S.