Marcellus Williams’s execution was a result of being convicted of Felicia Gayle’s murder in 1998 during a burglary.
Marcellus Williams, a 55 year old man, was executed on Sept. 24 by the state of Missouri, reports TIME. Executed by lethal injection, he passed away after 6 p.m. in a Missouri State prison in Bonne Terre St Francois County, reported TIME. CNN stated there were around 100 demonstrators present on the prison grounds during his execution protesting against capital punishment and his execution. Williams was convicted and sentenced to death in 2001 for the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle, a social worker and well-known St Louis Post Dispatch reporter, said TIME.
CBS News reported that the butcher knife used to stab Gayle was left lodged in her neck, after being stabbed 43 times. The Guardian said Williams was accused of breaking into Gayle’s home and stabbing her to death after stealing her belongings.
The Guardian reports that prosecutors raised concerns of the lack of DNA evidence linking Williams to the crime, meaning he did not get a fair trial. Previously in January 2015, days away from execution, the Missouri State Supreme Court granted his attorneys more time for DNA testing, says The Guardian. Again, in August 2017, the Republican governor at the time, Eric Greitens, requested more DNA testing on the knife. Tests concluded no traces of Williams’s DNA, says The Guardian. However, Mike Parson, the current Republican governor, disbanded that board and pushed for the execution to proceed, says The Guardian.
In January 2024 the Democratic prosecuting attorney Wesley Bell filed to overturn Williams’s conviction, citing repeated DNA testing concluding Williams’s fingerprints were not on the knife, says The Guardian. Additional testing on the knife showed that staff with the prosecutor’s office had mishandled the weapon after the killing, even touching the weapon without gloves on before the trial, stated The Guardian. Testimony by a forensic expert deemed the mishandling of the weapon made it impossible to determine if Williams’s fingerprints were on the knife earlier, says The Guardian.
In August, Williams and his prosecutors agreed to halt his execution, meaning he would plead no contest to first degree murder for a new sentence of life without parole, says The Guardian. However, lawyers said the agreement was not an admission of his guilt, but to save his life while new evidence was gathered to prove his innocence, says The Guardian. Judges signed off on the agreement as well as the victim’s family, but the attorney general challenged it and the supreme court blocked it, says The Guardian. Jonathan Potts, one of Williams’s attorneys, stated the public does not want this execution, nor does the victim’s family, nor does the St Louis county prosecuting attorney’s office, reported The Guardian.
TIME reported after his death, there was widespread condemnation, especially after it was not supported by the prosecution nor the victim’s family. Concerns regarding the trial’s jury selection appeared with the majority white, proving a potential racial bias, with Williams being black and Gayle white. TIME reports many advocates also point to his story as not an isolated moment, but as “indicative of a greater narrative of racial injustice in the criminal justice system.” Missouri congresswoman Cori Bush agreed that the state of Missouri and the nation’s legal system failed Williams and will continue to do so as long as the death penalty is upheld, reported TIME.
CNN reported that in a statement posted on X, by the NAACP, that Missouri lynched another innocent Black man, even expressing that Governor Parson had the responsibility to save his life and the NAACP will hold Parson accountable.
CNN further reported that Williams’s last statement was “all praise be to Allah in every situation,” as a devout Muslim, Williams was an Imam for prisoners and a poet. CBS News reported that the Imam was with him in the chamber whilst awaiting execution and his son Marcellus Williams Jr. with two of his attorneys witnessed the execution, reports Dana Rieck of Saint Louis Post-Dispatch. There were no witnesses or viewers from Gayle’s family present for the execution. Their lack of attendance is due to previously opposing executing him, reports Karen Pojmann the Missouri Department of Corrections Communicator Director says CBS News.
Williams was among five executions taking place nationwide across a seven-day span, if all are carried out on the correct day, according to the Death Penalty Information Centre, says CBS News. Williams’s execution is the third in Missouri this year, says CBS News.
