Marcellus Williams, 55, faces execution on Tuesday night in Missouri for the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle, a former newspaper reporter. Williams has consistently maintained his innocence, arguing that no physical evidence ties him to the crime. On Monday, a prosecutor from the office that obtained the original death sentence will argue before the state Supreme Court that Williams’s conviction was flawed by violations of his rights during trial.
His lawyers have also filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. U.S. Representative Cori Bush of St. Louis has made pleas for mercy, saying that Williams was wrongfully convicted.
“You have it in your power to save a life today by granting clemency to a man who has already unjustly served 24 years in prison for a crime he did not commit,” Bush said. Since Williams’s conviction in 2003, he has repeatedly come close to being spared. His effort to prove his innocence has faced hurdles, including the deaths of two key witnesses against him and dashed hopes that DNA found on the weapon would point to a different suspect.
On Aug. 11, 1998, Gayle was stabbed 43 times during a burglary in her suburban St. Louis home.
Evidence collected at the scene included bloody shoeprints, fingerprints, a knife sheath, and suspect’s hair. Missing from the house were Gayle’s purse, jacket, and her husband’s laptop. In May 1999, an inmate named Henry Cole and Williams’ girlfriend, Lara Asaro, identified Williams as the culprit.
marcellus williams’ fight for clemency
Despite no forensic evidence tying Williams to the crime scene, he was convicted based on their testimonies. Both informants have since died, and Williams’ attorneys argue that their stories sometimes changed and conflicted with other details about the killing.
In January, Williams’ attorneys filed a motion to vacate his conviction and sentence. On Aug. 21, county prosecuting attorney Wesley Bell’s office and Williams’ attorneys reached an agreement allowing Williams to enter a new, no-contest plea to first-degree murder in exchange for a life-in-prison sentence without parole.
The victim’s husband signed off on the plea. However, state Attorney General Andrew Bailey argued the conviction should stand. During an Aug.
28 hearing, the retired prosecutor who handled the case admitted evidence was mishandled in the 1998 trial, which could have exonerated Williams. Nonetheless, the judge declined to vacate Williams’ conviction and sentence, despite DNA evidence on the knife that did not match Williams. Williams’ defense team argues that the DNA evidence points to his innocence.
His attorney, Tricia Rojo Bushnell, told the press that the defense team will file more appeals and seek clemency. Unless the courts or the governor intervene, Williams’ execution remains scheduled for this week. Williams is one of five men set to be executed in the U.S. over a six-day period.
If all five executions proceed, the U.S. will have executed 18 death row inmates this year.
- NYTimes.”Defense Lawyers in Missouri Scrambling to Halt Death Sentence”.
- USAToday.”Missouri inmate set for execution is ‘loving father’ whose DNA wasn’t on murder weapon”.
- Go.”Missouri Supreme Court to consider death row case a day before scheduled execution”.