Despite his strong case of innocence, Williams Marcellus has been executed in the U.S state of Missouri after being on death row for more than twenty (20) years. His execution occurred on Tueday September 23.
Williams has maintained his innocence in the 1988 stabbing of Felicia Gayle at St. Louis suburb.
Williams attorney argued on the grounds of discrimination against his client citing concerns over how black jurors were badly excluded from his trial and that the DNA evidence was mishandled.
None of the DNA evidence linked Williams to Gayle’s murder and a prosecutor has recently indicated the suspects death sentence should have been called off.
Despite Republican Missouri Governor Mike Parson and the U.S Supreme Court dismissing Williams’ bid for clemency on Monday, September 22, the three liberal justices of the Court Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson said they would have granted him a stay.
Gayle’s family noted they want Marcellus to live and his execution is not necessary.
The Communications director at the Missouri Department of Corrections, Karen Pojmann, said no single person from Gayle’s family was present during Williams execution.
Williams son and two of his attorneys were present at the execution.
According to the charges brought against Williams, he broke into Gayle’s apartment and stabbed her forty-three times with a knife before running away with her husband’s laptop and her purse.
Felicia Gayle was a social worker and a reporter for St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
British Billionaire Richard Branson including many others campaigned against the execution of Williams. This happens to be the third execution in Missouri this year.
Branson said on Tuesday in an interview with BBC that he has spent half of the day focusing on Williams case. According to Branson, he believes Williams is innocent.
Due to the discovery of male DNA on the murder weapon that did not match Williams, the execution date for Williams was postponed twice, in 2015 and 2017. The prosecutor’s office employee who handled the knife without wearing gloves tampered with the validity of the DNA.
Former governor, Eric Greitens formed a committee to look into Williams case after the latter was granted a stay but he left office due to scandal leveled against and no finality was brought to the case.
The prosecutor’s office reached agreement with Midwest Innocence Project, a legal organization whose attorneys represented Williams, that, in the worst case scenario, he ought to be sentenced to life in prison.
But Missouri Supreme Court overturned the agreement and made it clear the death sentence will hold.
