Missouri Death Row Inmate Makes Desperate Plea Before Scheduled Execution

Inmate Maintains Innocence in 1998 Murder

A Mis­souri death row inmate, Mar­cel­lus Williams, 55, is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on Sep­tem­ber 24 for the 1998 mur­der of for­mer news­pa­per reporter Feli­cia Gayle. Williams has long main­tained his inno­cence in the crime.

Challenges to Conviction and Execution

Williams’ attor­neys have filed a peti­tion with the U.S. Supreme Court, argu­ing that his right to due process was vio­lat­ed when Repub­li­can Mis­souri Gov­er­nor Michael Par­son abrupt­ly ter­mi­nat­ed an inves­ti­ga­tion into the case. 

The inves­ti­ga­tion had been launched by Par­son­’s pre­de­ces­sor, for­mer Gov­er­nor Eric Gre­it­ens, who had halt­ed Williams’ exe­cu­tion indefinitely.

The St. Louis Coun­ty Pros­e­cut­ing Attor­ney’s Office has also announced that it will appeal a judge’s rul­ing uphold­ing Williams’ con­vic­tion and death sentence. 

Addi­tion­al­ly, Williams’ legal team has filed a motion ask­ing the Mis­souri Court of Appeals to recon­sid­er its 2010 denial of Williams’ claim that a tri­al pros­e­cu­tor uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly removed black prospec­tive jurors.

Questions About DNA Evidence

Pros­e­cu­tors at Williams’ orig­i­nal tri­al claimed that DNA evi­dence linked him to the crime. How­ev­er, ques­tions have emerged about the integri­ty of that evidence. 

St. Louis Coun­ty Pros­e­cu­tor Wes­ley Bell cit­ed con­cerns about the DNA evi­dence on the mur­der weapon, the butch­er knife, as a rea­son for request­ing a hear­ing to chal­lenge Williams’ guilt ear­li­er this year.

Possible Plea Deal Blocked

Ear­li­er this year, Williams’ attor­neys and the pros­e­cu­tor’s office reached an agree­ment under which Williams would enter a no-con­test plea to first-degree mur­der in exchange for a new sen­tence of life in prison with­out parole.

But the Mis­souri Supreme Court blocked that agree­ment, order­ing an evi­den­tiary hear­ing to proceed.

Calls for Clemency

Activists and politi­cians, includ­ing U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cori Bush, are pres­sur­ing Gov­er­nor Par­son to stay Williams’ execution. 

The NAACP has also writ­ten to the gov­er­nor, argu­ing that the death penal­ty has been “his­tor­i­cal­ly applied in a racial­ly dis­parate man­ner” in Mis­souri, par­tic­u­lar­ly in cas­es involv­ing a black defen­dant and a white victim.