His last meal Marcellus Williams (Marcellus Williams) was chicken wings and chopped fries. Earlier Tuesday morning he had confessed for 90 minutes to the imam who visited him at Bonne Terre prison. Until 16:45 the lawyers were fighting for a stay of execution of his death sentence.
At 18:00 the Missouri Attorney General notified the Department of Corrections that any legal attempt had been defeated. A minute later he was given the lethal injection. At 18:10 Marcellus Williams was dead. The execution took place in the presence of his son who watched the proceedings.
Marcellus Williams has been executed.
His final statement was made public.
“All Praise Be To Allah In Every Situation!!!” pic.twitter.com/hDWg6gNIn3
— Censored Men (@CensoredMen) September 24, 2024
Williams pleaded not guilty for 25 years
Marcellus Williams was sentenced to death in 2001 for the murder of journalist Felicia Gayle. In the meantime, the execution had been postponed twice due to lack of sufficient evidence. For 25 years, the 56-year-old death row inmate maintained his innocence.
The 42-year-old woman was found dead by her radiologist husband on August 11, 1998. She had been stabbed 43 times (7 of them fatal) with a butcher knife in the kitchen of her suburban St. Louis home.
From the start, the version of burglary was adopted because various personal belongings of the couple were missing from her apartment at the University of Missouri. Among them her husband’s laptop.
After months of fruitless searches, the victim’s family announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrator. Two people voluntarily presented themselves to the authorities. She was the partner and former cellmate of Williams, who had been arrested on another occasion for robbing a donut shop. They claimed that the crime had been confessed to them.
The “soft” elements of the conviction
Williams was arrested and brought to trial. In August 2001, after the testimony of 22 witnesses, he was sentenced to death by a St. Louis County judge. One of them claimed that Williams sold him the calculator he had stolen from the killer’s place.
Since then, a non-stop struggle began, with the assistance of his lawyers and other organizations, to overturn the decision and his acquittal. Evidence conclusively leading to the conclusion that Williams had been to Gale’s apartment was not found. No genetic material linking him to the murder. The prints on the knife had been altered.
A stay of execution was achieved in 2015 and 2017. A review of the file was repeatedly requested. Doubts kept growing. It was said that one of the jurors was initially biased simply because Williams was black.
Back in 2017 right after his original stay of execution we asked Marcellus Williams if he was at peace and this is what he told us. We owe it to him to keep the pressure on and let this be a call to action so that this never happens to another innocent man again. pic.twitter.com/RZpb4scntv
— Cory Popp (@CoryPopp) September 25, 2024
The new governor took action
The election of a new governor in Missouri and the assumption of power by the Republican Mike Parson had a catalytic effect on the turn of the case. He pushed for the death penalty from the start, assuming – uncritically – that Williams had already been found guilty. He had the right to pardon, but he did not exercise it. At the same time, he dissolved the competent body that had given a 6-year extension and appointed a new one.
On August 21, 2024, and in a desperate bid to avoid the lethal injection, Williams made the decision to compromise. He accepted an offer to plead guilty to Gayle’s murder on the condition that his sentence be commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The victim’s family also signed the agreement, requesting that the execution process not proceed. The jury agreed to the same.
The state’s attorney general, Andrew Bailey, blocked that deal and the process entered its final stages. The Supreme Court, which sat on it, did not justify its decision.
“Nothing made me believe in his innocence”
“Mr. Williams has exhausted due process and every judicial avenue, including over fifteen hearings attempting to maintain his innocence and overturn his conviction,” Parson said after the Missouri Supreme Court’s decision.
“No court has ever found any basis for Mr. Williams’ claims of innocence. At the end of the day, his guilty verdict and death sentence were upheld. “Nothing in the facts of this case leads me to believe in Mr. Williams’ innocence, therefore Mr. Williams’ punishment will be carried out as ordered by the Supreme Court,” he added.
“We hope his death will bring an end to a case that has languished for decades, re-victimizing those close to Gail,” Governor Parson concluded.
Until the last moment of his life, Williams did not stop defending himself. “While he readily admitted the mistakes he had made throughout his life, he never wavered that he is innocent of the crime for which he was put to death,” one of his lawyers said after the execution.
“Although we are devastated by the state’s disbelief towards an innocent man, we are comforted by the fact that he left peacefully.”
Tonight, Missouri executed an innocent man.
Our hearts are with Marcellus and his loved ones. pic.twitter.com/aSQxazoK9X
— Innocence Project (@innocence) September 24, 2024
#Marcellus #Williams #executed #knowing #murderer
