A Missouri death row inmate who has long maintained his innocence in a 1998 murder is making a final plea for a stay of execution.
Attorneys for Marcellus Williams, 55, who was convicted in 2001 of first-degree murder in the death of former newspaper reporter Felicia Gayle, petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to stop his death by lethal injection, which was scheduled for Sept. 24.
They argued in court documents that Williams’ right to a fair trial was violated when Missouri’s Republican governor, Michael Parson, abruptly ended his investigation into Williams’ case.
His predecessor, former Gov. Eric Greitens, had stayed Williams’ execution indefinitely and formed a panel of former judges to review the case and determine whether Williams should be granted clemency.
The board investigated Williams’ case for the next six years, but it’s unclear if it ever reached a verdict before Parson suddenly disbanded it.
Marcellus Williams, 55, is scheduled to be executed on September 24 for the 1998 murder of former newspaper reporter Felicia Gayle.
“The governor’s actions have violated Williams’ constitutional rights and created an extraordinarily urgent need for the court’s attention,” the attorneys argued in the petition.
Williams’ attorneys noted that even the St. Louis County District Attorney’s Office said earlier this year that there were constitutional errors in Williams’ original trial — including the removal of one potential black juror because of race.
“These would be key questions in the board of inquiry’s consideration of whether to recommend clemency over execution — if the governor had not erroneously dissolved the board,” the petition says.
Williams had previously filed a civil suit over Parson’s dissolution, and a district court ruled that the governor exceeded his authority under state law and deprived Williams of his due process rights, according to the St. Louis-Post Dispatch.
But the Missouri Supreme Court disagreed, ruling that inmates do not have due process rights in clemency proceedings — prompting Parson to set Williams’ execution date for Sept. 24.
Her lawyers now claim that Missouri Governor Michael Parson is trampling on Williams’ fair trial rights by disbanding the board investigating her case
His lawyers and supporters are now using every option possible to try to stop the 55-year-old’s execution.
In addition to the appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, the St. Louis County District Attorney’s Office announced Monday that it will appeal the judge’s decision upholding the conviction and death sentence to the Missouri Supreme Court.
The next day, Williams’ legal team also announced it had filed a motion asking the Missouri Court of Appeals to reconsider a 2010 ban on Williams’ claim that the trial prosecutor unconstitutionally removed black prospective jurors because of their race.
Any of the three courts could delay Williams’ execution to give judges more time to consider the claims.
Prosecutors in Williams’ original trial alleged that Williams broke into Gayle’s home on Aug. 11, 1998, and stabbed her 43 times with a butcher knife before stealing her purse and her husband’s laptop.
Prosecutors in Williams’ original trial have said Williams broke into Gayle’s home on Aug. 11, 1998, heard water running in the shower and grabbed a butcher knife.
When she came downstairs, Gayle had been stabbed 43 times and her purse and her husband’s laptop had been stolen.
Authorities say Williams then stole the jacket to hide the blood on his shirt, prompting his girlfriend to ask him why he would wear the jacket on a hot day.
The girlfriend later said she saw the stolen laptop in Williams’ car and he sold it to a neighbor a day or two later.
Prosecutors also referred to testimony from Henry Cole, who shared a prison with Williams in 1999 while Williams was in prison on unrelated charges.
Cole told prosecutors that Williams confessed to the killing and offered details about it.
But defense attorneys objected, saying both Williams’ girlfriend and Cole had felony convictions and wanted a $10,000 reward for information about Gayle’s death.
St. Louis County District Attorney Wesley Bell cited concerns about DNA evidence from the butcher knife when he requested a hearing to question Williams’ guilt earlier this year.
Questions have since been raised about the integrity of the trial — which led to Williams’ conviction — with Democratic St. Louis County District Attorney Wesley Bell citing concerns about DNA evidence from the butcher knife when he requested a hearing to question Williams’ guilt earlier this year.
He said the evidence showed that the murder weapon had someone else’s DNA on it.
But just days before the Aug. 21 hearing, new tests showed DNA evidence had been tainted because members of the prosecutor’s office touched the knife without gloves before the original 2001 trial.
Attorneys for the Midwest Innocence Project then struck a deal with the DA’s office in which Williams would enter a no-contest plea to first-degree murder in exchange for a new sentence of life in prison without parole.
Judge Bruce Hilton signed off on the agreement, as did Gayle’s family.
But at the urging of Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey, the Missouri Supreme Court blocked the deal and ordered Hilton to continue hearing evidence.
The judge then ruled on September 12 that the first-degree murder conviction and death sentence would stand.
‘[Williams’] The remaining evidence is merely repackaged claims of evidence that was available at trial and was included in Williams’ unsuccessful direct appeal and post-conviction challenges,” Hilton concluded.
– The court has no grounds to find Williams innocent, and no court has made such a statement, he continued.
Activists are pressuring Gov. Parson to hold off on Williams’ execution next week
Still, Parson’s office is inundated with requests to delay Williams’ execution.
For example, the NAACP wrote to the governor arguing that the death penalty has “historically been applied racially disparately,” particularly in Missouri.
“To kill Mr. Williams, a black man wrongfully convicted of killing a white woman, would be a terrible miscarriage of justice and a continuation of the worst of Missouri’s past,” NAACP CEO Derrick Johnson and Missouri State Conference President Nimrod Chapel Jr. wrote.
U.S. Rep. Cori Bush also sent her own letter to Parson urging him to stop Williams’ execution.
“As legislators, we are committed to building a Missouri that is a beacon of justice, and we work every day to represent the needs and demands of Missourians across the state,” he wrote in a letter shared with X.
“For this reason, we urge you to immediately commute Mr. Williams’ sentence and stay his execution.”
He then highlighted the efforts of Williams’ lawyers to prove his innocence, saying his execution would be a “gross injustice and would cause serious and lasting harm”.
A spokeswoman for Parson said attorneys in the governor’s office have met with Williams’ legal team and the governor will announce a decision at a later date — typically at least a day before the scheduled execution.
But Parson, a former county sheriff, has been in office for 11 executions and has never issued a pardon.
If Williams were to die by lethal injection next week, his death would be the third execution in Missouri just this year and the 14th in the nation.
