ST. LOUIS — ST. LOUIS (AP) — Marcellus Williams thought the DNA evidence was enough to get him off Missouri’s death row, maybe even out of prison. A decades-long lapse by a prosecutor left his life hanging by a thread.
Williams, 55, is expected to executed on September 24 for the 1998 stabbing death of Lisha Gayle in the St. Louis suburb of University City. St. Louis County Judge Bruce Hilton will preside over a hearing Wednesday challenging Williams’ guilt. But the key piece of evidence supporting Williams’ case is DNA testing that is no longer usable.
A 2021 Missouri law allows prosecutors to file a motion to overturn a conviction they believe was wrong. St. Louis County District Attorney Wesley Bell filed such a request in January after reviewing DNA tests that were not available when Williams was convicted in 2001. Those tests indicated that Williams’ DNA was not on the murder weapon. A hearing was set for Aug. 21.
Instead of a hearing, the attorneys met behind closed doors for hours before Matthew Jacober, a special prosecutor for Bell’s office, announced that the DNA evidence was contaminated, making it impossible to prove anyone else was the killer.
New tests released last week determined that DNA from Edward Magee, an investigator for the prosecution when Williams was tried, was on the knife. Tests also failed to exclude the original prosecutor who tried the case, Keith Larner.
“Additional research and testing revealed that the evidence was improperly handled at the time of (Williams’) conviction,” Jacober told the judge. “As a result, DNA was likely removed and added between 1998 and 2001.”
That led Williams’ attorneys and the prosecution to reach a compromise: Williams would enter a new, no-contest plea to first-degree murder in exchange for a new sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Hilton signed the agreement. And so did Gayle’s family.
Attorneys for the Missouri Attorney General’s Office did not.
At the urging of Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey, the Missouri Supreme Court blocked the agreement and ordered Hilton to proceed with the evidentiary hearing.
The execution, now less than four weeks away, is still ongoing. Hilton is expected to rule in mid-September.
Williams has come close to execution before. In August 2017, just hours before his scheduled lethal injection, then-Governor Eric Greitens, a Republican, postponement granted after investigation revealed that the DNA on the knife matched that of an unknown person.
That evidence prompted Bell to reexamine the case. A rising star in Missouri Democratic politics, Bell defeated incumbent U.S. Representative Cori Bush He is running in the primaries this month and is a heavy favorite in the general election in November.
Three other men — Christopher Dunn last month, Lamar Johnson And Kevin Strickland — were released after decades in prison after prosecutors successfully challenged their convictions under the 2021 law.
Prosecutors at Williams’ trial said that on Aug. 11, 1998, he broke into Gayle’s home, heard water running in the shower and found a large butcher knife. When Gayle came downstairs, she was stabbed 43 times. Her purse and her husband’s laptop were stolen. Gayle was a social worker who had previously worked as a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Authorities say Williams stole a jacket to cover up the blood on his shirt. Williams’ girlfriend asked him why he would be wearing a jacket on a hot day. The girlfriend said she later saw the laptop in the car and that Williams sold it a day or two later.
Prosecutors also cited testimony from Henry Cole, who shared a cell with Williams in 1999 while Williams was incarcerated on unrelated charges. Cole told prosecutors that Williams confessed to the killing and provided details about the killing.
Williams’ attorneys responded that both the girlfriend and Cole were convicted felons who wanted a $10,000 reward.