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Missouri Executes Marcellus Williams Despite Controversy

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Marcellus Williams, 55, was executed in Missouri on Tuesday for the 1998 murder of Lisha Gayle, a former newspaper reporter. The execution proceeded despite objections from the victim’s family and a prosecutor who acknowledged that DNA evidence did not link Williams to the crime scene. In his final moments, Williams appeared to converse with a spiritual advisor seated next to him.

He wiggled his feet underneath a white sheet and moved his head slightly. His chest heaved about a half dozen times before he showed no further movement. Williams’ son and two attorneys watched from another room, but no one was present on behalf of the victim’s family.

The Missouri Department of Corrections released a brief statement that Williams had written ahead of time, saying: “All Praise Be to Allah In Every Situation!!!”

Governor Mike Parson and the Missouri Supreme Court rejected Williams’ appeals for clemency. The U.S. Supreme Court also declined to intervene, with the court’s three liberal justices dissenting. Critics have labeled the execution as murder and a miscarriage of justice.

Execution amid DNA controversy persists

“Tonight, we all bear witness to Missouri’s grotesque exercise of state power,” said Tricia Rojo Bushnell, Williams’ attorney. Williams’ son explicitly called his father’s execution “a murder.”

In a clemency petition, Gayle’s family expressed that their definition of closure was for Williams to be allowed to live.

The NAACP and Black Lives Matter also condemned the execution. NAACP President Derrick Johnson stated, “When DNA evidence proves innocence, capital punishment is not justice — it is murder.”

Williams was convicted of first-degree murder, burglary, and robbery based on testimony from a jailhouse witness and his girlfriend, both of whom later died. His defense argued that the informants benefited from cooperating with prosecutors and that their accounts were inconsistent.

DNA evidence from the knife used in the attack did not match Williams, but this was insufficient to overturn the conviction. The execution had been halted twice before, in 2015 and 2017, for further DNA testing. However, a board of inquiry appointed to review the case was dissolved in 2023, leading to the resumption of the execution process.

The execution underscores ongoing debates about the fairness and application of the death penalty, especially in cases where substantial doubts about guilt persist in light of new technological advancements like DNA testing.


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  • APNews.”Missouri executes a man for the 1998 killing of a woman despite her family’s calls to spare his life”.
  • TheIntercept.”“I Saw a Mirror”: Marcellus Williams’s Execution Enrages Palestine Solidarity Protesters”.
  • USAToday.”Marcellus Williams executed in Missouri amid strong innocence claims: ‘It is murder'”.

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