Missouri judge rejects innocence claim of Marcellus Williams who faces execution
ST. LOUIS — A judge on Thursday declined to convict and sentence to death Marcellus Williamsa Missouri man set to be executed later this month for the 1998 murder of a woman despite questions about DNA evidence on the knife used in the attack.
St. Louis County District Judge Bruce Hilton presided over a case evidence hearing Last month, Williams’ guilt was contested. Williams, 55, was convicted of murdering Lisha Gayle, a social worker and former reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. His execution by lethal injection scheduled for September 24.
“Every claim of error that Williams has asserted on direct appeal, post-conviction review, and habeas review has been rejected by the Missouri courts,” Hilton wrote. “There is no basis for any court to find that Williams is innocent, and no court has made such a finding. Williams is guilty of first-degree murder and is sentenced to death.”
Attorneys for Williams, the St. Louis County District Attorney’s Office and the Missouri District Attorney’s Office did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.
Williams’ attorneys are expected to seek clemency from Republican Gov. Mike Parson and file an appeal.
In January, the Democratic district attorney of St. Louis County Wesley Bell cited questions about DNA evidence about the murder weapon when requesting a hearing to consider throwing out Williams’ conviction. Bell said the evidence indicated someone else’s DNA was on the butcher knife used to kill Gayle.
Bell brought the challenge under a 2021 Missouri Law which allows prosecutors to ask a court to review a conviction they believe was wrong. That and setting an execution date left Williams facing the prospect of everything from having his conviction overturned and his release to having it confirmed and facing an imminent execution.
Despite Bell’s motion, the Missouri Supreme Court in June set the execution date for September 24. A hearing date was then set for August on Bell’s motion regarding the DNA evidence.
But just before the Aug. 21 hearing, a new DNA report revealed that the DNA evidence was contaminated because St. Louis County prosecutors had handled the knife without gloves before the original trial in 2001.
With the DNA evidence unreadable, attorneys at the Midwest Innocence Project working on Williams’ behalf reached a compromise with the prosecution: Williams would again plead guilty to first-degree murder in exchange for a new sentence: life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Hilton signed the agreement. And so did Gayle’s family. But 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 on August 28.
Williams’ attorney, Jonathan Potts, said during the hearing that the mishandling of the murder weapon was devastating for Williams because it destroyed “his last and best chance” to prove his innocence.
Hilton agreed with this in his ruling.
“In light of this report, (Williams) fails to demonstrate that the genetic material on the knife handle provides the basis for ‘clear and convincing evidence’ of Williams’ innocence,” Hilton wrote.
Deputy Attorney General Michael Spillane said there was other evidence pointing to his guilt.
“They call the evidence in this case weak. It was overwhelming,” Spillane said during the hearing.
Prosecutors at Williams’ original 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.
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.
Three other men — Christopher Dunn, Lamar Johnson And Kevin Strickland — were released after decades in prison under Missouri’s 2021 law.
Williams has come close to execution before. In August 2017, just hours before his scheduled death, then-Governor Eric Greitens, a Republican, postponement granted after viewing the same DNA evidence that prompted Bell to overturn the conviction.
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.
Williams is black, and during the hearing, the man prosecuting him, Keith Larner, was asked why the jury contained only one black juror. Larner said he had eliminated only three potential black jurors, including one who he said looked like Williams.
Williams’ attorney, Joseph Green, told Hilton that Williams also represented a man at trial who killed his wife and wounded several others in a 1992 shooting at a St. Louis County courthouse. That case took up time that could have been spent on Williams’ defense, Green said during the hearing.
“I don’t believe he gave us his best,” said Green, now a judge.