Marcellus Williams executed in Missouri amid strong innocence claims: ‘It is murder’….see more

Missouri executed Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams on Tuesday in the 1998 killing of a former newspaper reporter despite a prosecutor in the case and the family of the victim saying his life should be spared.

Williams, who maintained his innocence − a claim backed by not only his defense team but prosecutors − is now the third inmate executed in Missouri this year and the 15th in the nation. He was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. following the lethal injection, the Missouri Department of Corrections reported.

Tonight, we all bear witness to Missouri’s grotesque exercise of state power,” Williams’ attorney, Tricia Rojo Bushnell, said in a statement, emphasizing how prosecutors have “zealously fought to undo the conviction and save Mr. Williams’ life.”

Williams’ son, Marcellus Williams Jr., told KSDK-TV: “This is a murder.”

Marcellus Williams executed in Missouri amid strong innocence claims: ‘It is murder’
The execution came despite one of the prosecutors in the case saying that Williams’ life should be spared because DNA did not connect him to the case. Critics are calling the execution murder.

Missouri executed Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams on Tuesday in the 1998 killing of a former newspaper reporter despite a prosecutor in the case and the family of the victim saying his life should be spared.

Williams, who maintained his innocence − a claim backed by not only his defense team but prosecutors − is now the third inmate executed in Missouri this year and the 15th in the nation. He was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. following the lethal injection, the Missouri Department of Corrections reported.

“Tonight, we all bear witness to Missouri’s grotesque exercise of state power,” Williams’ attorney, Tricia Rojo Bushnell, said in a statement, emphasizing how prosecutors have “zealously fought to undo the conviction and save Mr. Williams’ life.”

Williams’ son, Marcellus Williams Jr., told KSDK-TV: “This is a murder.”

Williams, 55, was convicted in the Aug. 11, 1998 murder of Lisha Gayle, a former police reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch killed during a burglary at the St. Louis suburban home she shared with her physician husband. She was stabbed 43 times with a kitchen knife taken from the couple’s home.

No DNA ever connected Williams to the crime scene. In recent months, a prosecutor in the case said the execution should have been called off, and in a clemency petition, Gayle’s family said that they “define closure as Marcellus being allowed to live.”

“Marcellus’ execution is not necessary,” they said

Even so, Republican Missouri Gov. Mike Parson and the Missouri Supreme Court denied Williams clemency on Monday.

And on Tuesday with less than an hour before the execution, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to stop it, though the court’s three liberal justices said they would have granted Williams a stay: Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. The high court offered no explanation for its decision.

Williams’ last meal included chicken wings and tater tots, Missouri Department of Corrections spokesperson Karen Pojmann told USA TODAY.

His last visit was with Imam Jalahii Kacem for about 90 minutes.

Before his death, Williams was asked if he had any last words. Ahead of the execution, the corrections department provided USA TODAY with what Williams said he was planning on being his last words. They are: “All praise be to Allah in every situation.”
Williams lead defense attorney said more than one million citizens and faith leaders implored Parson to commute Marcellus’s death sentence.

“That is not justice,” Bushnell said. “And we must all question any system that would allow this to occur.”

She described Wiliams as “a kind and thoughtful man” who spent his last years supporting those around him in his role as an imam.

“We will remember him for his deeply evocative poetry and his love for and service to his family and his community,” she said. “While he yearned to return home, he is a thoughtful man who has worked hard to move beyond the anger, frustration, and fear of wrongful execution, channeling his energy into his faith and finding meaning and connection through Islam. The world will be a worse place without him.”

She went on to thank the prosecuting attorney who tried to save Williams’ life “for his commitment to truth and justice and all he did to try to prevent this unspeakable wrong.”

Williams’ execution not only drew criticism from religious leaders and concerned citizens but government leaders and national advocacy groups including the NAACP and Black Lives Matter.

Missouri Congresswoman Cori Bush, a Democrat, said Parson didn’t just ignore the pleas and end Williams’ life, he “demonstrated how the death penalty is wielded without regard for innocence, compassion, equity, or humanity.”

He showed us how the standard of ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ can be applied selectively, depending on who stands accused and who stands in power,” Bush said in a statement to USA TODAY.

“Tonight, Missouri lynched another innocent Black man,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement to USA TODAY. “Governor Parson had the responsibility to save this innocent life, and he didn’t. The NAACP was founded in 1909 in response to the barbaric lynching of Black people in America − we were founded exactly because of people like Governor Parson who perpetuate violence against innocent Black people. We will hold Governor Parson accountable. When DNA evidence proves innocence, capital punishment is not justice − it is murder.”

Condemned inmates in the state may choose to die from lethal injection or lethal gas.

Williams was administered a 5-gram dose of pentobarbital in accordance with the state of Missouri’s lethal injection protocol.

Williams was convicted in 2001 of charges including first-degree murder, first-degree burglary and first-degree robbery in the death of Gayle, described as a “once-in-a-lifetime friend” who looked for the good in people.

Gayle, who was 42, was in the shower the morning someone broke into her home on a private gated street. He entered the house through the front door after breaking a small windowpane, reaching inside, and unlocking the front door.

Wearing a long purple T-shirt, Gayle left the second-floor bathroom and was walking downstairs when she encountered the killer on the stairway landing. At some point, she was stabbed 43 times with a kitchen knife taken from the home.

Later that night, Gayle’s husband found his wife’s body in the couple’s front foyer and called 911.

Among the evidence police collected: bloody shoeprints and fingerprints, a knife sheath and the suspect’s hair collected from Gayle’s shirt, hands and the floor. Missing from the house were Gayle’s purse and jacket, and her husband’s laptop.

Williams was convicted in 2001 and sentenced to death.

Williams was previously set to be executed in January 2015 and in August 2017.

Both lethal injections were halted to conduct further DNA testing and investigation. The most recent stay of execution was ordered by then-Gov. Eric Greiten who appointed a board of inquiry to look into the case.

But during the summer of 2023, newly sworn-in Parson dissolved the board and lifted the stay. The court, Parsons said, would decide Williams’s fate, and the Missouri Supreme Court issued a third execution warrant for Williams.