The Missouri Supreme Court and the state's Republican governor, Mike Parson, on Monday separately rejected requests by inmates to avoid their scheduled executions.
Marcellus Williams, 55, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Tuesday in connection with the murder of Lisha Gayle, a social worker and former newspaper reporter who was stabbed more than 40 times during a robbery in her St. Louis home in 1998. Associated PressWilliams continues to maintain his innocence.
Judge Parson denied Williams' request for clemency and instead sentenced him to life in prison. The state Supreme Court also denied a request to stay the execution to allow a lower court to rule on whether prosecutors in the trial had unfairly excluded black jurors because of racial bias.
Williams' lawyers argued in the state Supreme Court that there were procedural errors in jury selection and that the prosecution had mishandled the murder weapon, and the Supreme Court unanimously upheld a lower court ruling that rejected Williams' arguments.
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Marcellus Williams, 55, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Tuesday at 6 p.m. (Missouri Department of Corrections via The Associated Press)
“Despite nearly a quarter-century of litigation in both state and federal courts, there is no credible evidence of actual innocence or constitutional error that would undermine confidence in the original judgment,” Judge Zell Fisher wrote in the state ruling.
Williams' lawyers have appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the case is still being heard.
Parson said Williams' defense team had ample legal opportunities to argue their client's innocence. The governor also argued that Williams' defense team was “attempting to muddy the waters with DNA evidence” with claims the court has already rejected.
“The actual facts of this case give us no basis to believe that Mr. Williams is innocent,” Parson said in a statement. “Therefore, Mr. Williams' punishment will be carried out in accordance with the Supreme Court's orders.”
The governor has never granted clemency in a death penalty case.
St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell has questioned Williams' guilt and is seeking to vacate his sentence. Bell plans to appeal the Missouri Supreme Court's decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, his spokesman told The Associated Press.
“Even for those who oppose the death penalty, when there is even the slightest doubt about a defendant's guilt, this irreversible punishment should not be an option,” Bell said in a statement.
“The state of Missouri is about to execute an innocent man, an outcome that calls into question the legitimacy of our entire criminal justice system,” said Tricia Bushnell, an attorney with the Midwest Innocence Project.
At Williams' first trial, the prosecution alleged that he broke into Gayle's home on August 11, 1998, heard water running in the shower, found a large butcher knife and stabbed her 43 times as she came downstairs. Gayle's handbag and her husband's laptop were stolen from the home.
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Joseph Amrin, who was exonerated 20 years ago after spending years on death row, speaks at a rally in support of Missouri death row inmate Marcellus Williams on Aug. 21, 2024, in Clayton, Missouri. (Associated Press)
Williams is accused of stealing the jacket to cover the blood on his shirt. Williams' girlfriend asked him why he was wearing the jacket on a hot day and later noticed his wallet and laptop in his car. Williams sold the computer a day or two later, according to his girlfriend.
Prosecutors also pointed to the testimony of Henry Cole, Williams' cellmate when he was incarcerated on unrelated charges in 1999. Cole said Williams confessed to the murder and recounted details of it.
Williams' execution will be Missouri's third so far this year and the 100th since the state resumed executions in 1989.
This is the third time Williams has come close to execution.
In January 2015, with less than a week to go, the state Supreme Court vacated the execution to allow the defense time to pursue additional DNA testing.
In August 2017, then-Republican Gov. Eric Greitens granted a stay of execution and appointed a panel of retired judges to investigate the case, just hours before Williams' execution, but the panel never reached a conclusion. Inside the case.
Bell also asked for a hearing to determine Williams' guilt due to concerns about the DNA evidence, but just days before the hearing on August 21, new tests showed that the DNA on the knife belonged to a prosecutor's staff member who had handled the knife without gloves when originally tested.
Missouri Governor Mike Parson delivers his State of the State address on January 18, 2023 in Jefferson City, Missouri. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
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In the absence of DNA evidence pointing to an alternative suspect, lawyers from the Midwest Innocence Project reached a compromise with prosecutors in which Williams would enter a new not guilty plea to the first-degree murder charge in exchange for having his sentence reduced to life in prison without parole.
Judge Bruce Hilton and Gayle's family signed the agreement, but at the urging of Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican, the state Supreme Court blocked the agreement and ordered Hilton to proceed with a hearing, which took place on August 28.
Prosecutors in the 2001 murder trial argued that the jury was impartial despite having only one black person on the panel. Prosecutors said they excluded one potential black juror in part because he looked too similar to Williams, something Williams' lawyers argue shows inappropriate racial bias.
Judge Hilton ruled earlier this month that the first-degree murder conviction and death sentence should stand, highlighting that all of Williams' arguments had previously been rejected. The decision was upheld by the state Supreme Court on Monday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
