The son of death row inmate Marcellus Williams has made his heartbreaking final demand to the United States Supreme Court ahead of his father’s execution in Missouri Tuesday night.
In an interview with KSDK News, Marcellus Williams Jr. said he is praying for a miracle to prevent the scheduled execution of his 55-year-old father for the 1998 murder of Felicia “Lisha” Gayle, a journalist who was found stabbed to death in her home.
“I hope that Allah will free my father from his slavery and spare his life,” Williams Jr. said.
He added that he wants the US Supreme Court “to recognize that this is murder on their behalf, and this is wrong.”
“I believe that my father is really innocent and that they should investigate him more thoroughly.”
Marcellus Williams, 55, will be executed Tuesday night in Missouri
Prosecutors at Williams’ original trial in 2001 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.
Felicia ‘Lisha’ Gayle, a newspaper reporter who was found stabbed to death in her home on August 11, 1998
Since then, questions have been raised about the integrity of that process, which led to Williams’ conviction.
His lawyers have noted that a black juror was excluded from the jury pool, which consisted of 11 white people and one black juror — leading to an investigation into the case under former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, who indefinitely stayed Williams’ execution.
He formed a committee of former judges to review the case and determine whether Williams should be pardoned.
The board investigated Williams’ case for the next six years, but was abruptly shut down under current Governor Michael Parson.
Williams’ lawyers are now arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court that Parson, by ending the investigation, violated Williams’ right to a fair trial.
“The Governor’s actions violated Williams’ constitutional rights and have created an exceptionally urgent need for the Court’s attention,” the attorneys argued in a petition seeking a stay of execution.
They also 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.
His lawyers now allege that Missouri Governor Michael Parson violated Williams’ due process rights by disbanding a board that investigated his case.
“We asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the execution of Marcellus Williams on Tuesday, based on a prosecutor’s disclosure that he removed at least one black juror before the trial based on his race,” said Tricia Rojo Bushnell, an attorney for Mr. Williams.
“We were surprised to learn that ‘one of the reasons’ for removing a juror was that the juror was a young black man with glasses, which made him and Mr. Williams ‘look like they were brothers.’
“Our Constitution requires a fair trial before a jury of our peers,” she noted. “The district attorney removed this juror because he resembled Mr. Williams’ peers.
“St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell has pleaded guilty to a constitutional error in his racial bias during jury selection. We hope that the Supreme Court will stay Mr. Williams’ execution based on this new evidence of racial bias and the other serious questions raised about the integrity of Mr. Williams’ conviction.”
St. Louis County District Attorney Wesley Bell raised concerns about the DNA evidence on the butcher knife when he requested a hearing challenging Williams’ guilt earlier this year
Bell also raised concerns about the DNA evidence on the butcher knife. Earlier this year, he requested a hearing challenging Williams’ guilt.
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.
Activists pressure Governor Parson to stay Williams’ execution
Yet Parson’s office has been inundated with requests in recent weeks 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 strive to make Missouri a beacon of justice and we strive every day to represent the needs and demands of Missourians,” she 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.”
Meanwhile, Williams’ lawyers have vowed to continue fighting for his life even as his execution rapidly approaches.
“The public does not want this execution to go ahead. The victim’s family does not want this execution to go ahead and the St. Louis County District Attorney’s Office does not want this execution to go ahead,” said Jonathan Potts, one of Williams’ attorneys. The Guardian.
“The attorney general’s office, which had nothing to do with this at all, is the one trying to lead him to death row. It’s quite shocking and extraordinary.”
Bell also said in a statement to the newspaper Monday night that the St. Louis District Attorney’s Office “will continue to do everything in its power to save his life.”
‘Even for those who disagree with the death penalty, the irreversible punishment of execution should not be an option if there is even a shadow of doubt about a defendant’s guilt.’
Potts also claimed the case would create distrust in the system, but Williams has not given up hope.
“The only way to create public confidence in the justice system is for the system to be willing to admit its own mistakes. The public sees the justice system here at its most dysfunctional.”