Missouri death row inmate, 55, makes desperate plea days before his scheduled execution after maintaining his innocence in 1998 murder

A Missouri death row inmate who has long maintained his innocence in a 1998 murder is making a last-ditch effort to stay his execution.

Lawyers for Marcellus Williams, 55, who was convicted in 2001 of the first-degree murder of former newspaper reporter Felicia Gayle, have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to prevent his death by lethal injection, which had been scheduled for Sept. 24.

They argued in court documents that Williams’ right to a fair trial was trampled on when Missouri’s Republican Governor Michael Parson abruptly ended the investigation into Williams’ case.

His predecessor, former Gov. Eric Greitens, had stayed Williams’ execution indefinitely and formed a board of former judges to review his case and determine whether Williams should be pardoned.

The board investigated Williams’ case for the next six years, but it is unclear whether a ruling was ever made before Parson suddenly dissolved the board.

“The Governor’s actions violated Williams’ constitutional rights and have created an exceptionally 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 announced earlier this year that there were constitutional flaws in Williams’ original trial, including the removal of a potential black juror because of his race.

“These would be important issues for the investigating committee to consider in deciding whether to recommend clemency rather than execution — had the governor not wrongly dissolved the committee,” the petition said.

Williams had previously filed a civil suit challenging Parson’s termination, and a court ruled that the governor had exceeded his powers under state law and deprived Williams of his right to a fair trial. according to the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

But the Missouri Supreme Court disagreed, ruling that prisoners are not entitled to due process in clemency proceedings. This prompted Parson to set Williams’ execution date for September 24.

His lawyers and supporters are now trying by all means possible to prevent the 55-year-old’s execution.

In addition to petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court, the St. Louis County District Attorney’s Office announced Monday that it will appeal a judge’s ruling upholding the conviction and death penalty to the Missouri Supreme Court.

The next day, Williams’ legal team also announced that they had filed a motion with the Missouri Court of Appeals to reconsider the 2010 rejection of Williams’ claim that a prosecutor unconstitutionally removed black potential jurors because of their race.

Any of the three courts could stay Williams’ execution to give judges more time to review the claims.

Prosecutors at Williams’ original trial said that on August 11, 1998, Williams broke into Gayle’s home, heard water running in the shower and grabbed a butcher knife.

When she came downstairs, Gayle was stabbed 43 times and her bag and her husband’s laptop were stolen.

According to authorities, Williams then stole a jacket to cover up the blood on his shirt. His girlfriend at the time asked him why he would be wearing a jacket on a hot day.

The friend later testified that she had seen the stolen laptop in Williams’ car and that he had sold it to a neighbor a day or two later.

Prosecutors also cited the testimony of Henry Cole, who shared a cell with Williams in 1999 when Williams was incarcerated on unrelated charges.

Cole told prosecutors that Williams confessed to the killing and provided details about it.

Defense attorneys responded by arguing that both Williams’ girlfriend and Cole had been convicted of crimes and wanted a $10,000 reward for information about Gayle’s death.

Since then, questions have been raised about the integrity of that process, which led to Williams’ conviction. For example, Democratic St. Louis County District Attorney Wesley Bell raised concerns about DNA evidence on the butcher knife when he requested a hearing challenging Williams’ guilt earlier this year.

He said the evidence indicated that someone else’s DNA was on the murder weapon.

But just days before the August 21 hearing, new testing revealed that the DNA evidence had been invalidated because prosecutors had handled the knife without gloves before the original trial in 2001.

Attorneys for the Midwest Innocence Project subsequently reached an agreement with the prosecution, in which Williams would plead guilty to first-degree murder in exchange for a new sentence: life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Judge Bruce Hilton and Gayle’s family signed the agreement.

But at the request of Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey, the Missouri Supreme Court blocked the agreement and ordered Hilton to proceed with an evidentiary hearing.

The judge then ruled on September 12 that the first-degree murder conviction and the death penalty would stand.

‘[Williams’] “The remaining evidence is nothing more than a rehash of arguments about evidence available at trial that played a role in Williams’ failed direct appeal and post-conviction objections,” Hilton ruled.

“There is no basis for any court to find Williams not guilty, and no court has reached such a finding,” he continued.

Yet Parsons’ office is inundated with requests to stay Williams’ execution.

For example, the NAACP wrote a letter to the governor stating that the death penalty “has historically been applied in a racially unequal manner,” particularly in Missouri.

“The murder of Mr. Williams, a black man wrongly convicted of murdering a white woman, would amount to a horrific miscarriage of justice and a continuation of Missouri’s worst past,” wrote Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, and Nimrod Chapel Jr., president of the Missouri State Conference.

US Congresswoman 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 strive every day to represent the needs and demands of Missourians across the state,” she said. wrote in a letter to X.

“For this reason, we urge you to immediately commute Mr. Williams’ sentence and halt his execution.”

She then highlighted the efforts Williams’ lawyers have made to prove his innocence, saying his execution would be a “grave injustice and would cause serious and lasting harm.”

A spokesman for Parson said that attorneys from the governor’s office have consulted with Williams’ legal team and that the governor will announce a decision later, usually at least one day before the scheduled execution.

But Parson, a former county sheriff, has carried out 11 executions and has never granted a pardon.

If Williams were to die by lethal injection next week, it would be the third execution in Missouri this year and the 14th nationwide.