Two men those sentenced to death were executed by lethal injection on Tuesday in the United States, one of whom had maintained his innocence and received support from civil rights activist groups.
Marcellus Williams, The 55-year-old was sentenced in 2001 in Missouri for the 1998 murder of journalist Felicia Gayle, who was stabbed in her home during what appeared to be a robbery.
The man, previously convicted of burglary and robbery, was found guilty after the Testimony from a former cellmate and an ex-girlfriend, although no DNA was found at the crime scene. St. Louis County District Attorney Wesley Bell, whose office handled the original prosecution, had tried to block the execution because of doubts about the original judgmentBell said in a written statement after the execution that “if there is even a shadow of a doubt of innocence, the death penalty should never be an option.”
His execution was suspended in 2015 and again in 2017. after the discovery of male DNA on the knife that was not hers. The governor at the time, Eric Greitens, ordered an investigative commission, which was later deactivated by his successor, Michael Parson, in 2023.
This year, the local prosecutor’s office initiated proceedings to overturn his conviction. However, on Monday, Missouri Supreme Court ruled it would not stop the executionDespite calls from civil rights groups such as the NAACP and the Innocence Project, Governor Parson also did not halt the sentence, claiming that “no jury or court (…) has ever found merit in Williams’ claim of innocence.”
Williams’ defense then turned to the Supreme Court of the United Statesa conservative-majority court that on Tuesday denied a final request to delay the execution. Lawyers argued that the jury that found Williams guilty was assembled in a discriminatory way, with 11 white members and only one black person.
The British billionaire Richard Bransonwho supported Williams’ cause on Monday with a full-page newspaper advertisement, said on the social network X that it was “a shameful day for Missouri and for Governor Parson, who failed in his duty to protect an innocent man from injustice.”
The second executed on Tuesday was Travis Mullis 38-year-old convicted in Texas for killing his three-month-old son in 2008“Even on death row, it is possible to prove that one can be rehabilitated and not be considered a threat. We have changed, we are not the same (…). I regret the decision to take my son’s life, I apologize to his mother,” Mullis said before his execution.
These bring the number of executions in the United States to 16 in 2024. Nine more are still scheduled. The death penalty has been abolished in 23 states of the countrywhile six others — Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee — have moratoriums in effect.
