55-year-old Marcellus Williams has been the talk of social media over the last few weeks. Perhaps you’ve seen his photo posted on your Instagram timeline, or maybe you’ve seen people talking about him on Twitter (we’re never calling it “X”). According to APNews, today at 6 pm, September 24, 2024, Williams is set to be executed despite numerous efforts to convince the courts to spare him a fate that he asserts he does not deserve. In 1998, Williams was charged with the murder of newspaper reporter Lisha Gayle who was stabbed 43 times with a butcher knife during burglary inside her St. Louis, Missouri home.
The latest effort to save Williams marks the third time he and his lawyers have attempted to stop the state of Missouri from making what they believe to be a mistake. In January 2015, Williams was a week away from death when the Supreme Court of Missouri issued a stay that allowed for further DNA testing. In August of 2017, Williams more narrowly escaped death when then-Missouri Governor Eric Greitens agreed to a stay and appointed a panel to review all evidence in the case.
Unfortunately, that panel never reached a final decision. At one point, the Midwest Innocence Project was able to strike a deal that would take Williams off of death row in exchange for a guilty plea and a life sentence without the possibility of parole. The judge and the Gayle family agreed to those terms but the Republican Attorney General of Missouri Andrew Bailey leaned on the state’s Supreme Court and had the deal undone.
Only one Black juror sat to hear the case against Williams in the original 2001 trial. The other potential Black juror was struck from the pool under dubious circumstances to say the least…
The prosecutor in the 2001 murder case testified at the August hearing that the trial jury was fair, even though it included just one Black member on the panel. He said he struck one potential Black juror partly because he looked too much like Williams — a statement which Williams’ attorneys asserted showed improper racial bias.
Monday, Missouri Republican Governor Mike Parson denied yet another of Williams’ clemency requests saying:
“Nothing from the real facts of this case have led me to believe in Mr. Williams’ innocence,” Parson said in a statement. “As such, Mr. Williams’ punishment will be carried out as ordered by the Supreme Court.”
Parson also accused Williams’ lawyers of trying to “muddy the water” regarding DNA evidence in the case. However, those waters were “muddied” by the prosecutor’s office because DNA on the alleged murder weapon matched members of the investigation team who handled the object without proper gloves. Nevertheless, Judge Zel Fischer wrote the following in the state Supreme Court’s ruling:
“Despite nearly a quarter century of litigation in both state and federal courts, there is no credible evidence of actual innocence or any showing of a constitutional error undermining confidence in the original judgment,”
Perhaps there is one last miracle for Marcellus Williams to dodge an unjust death. Let us pray.
