Missouri Executes Death Row Inmate Despite Concerns About His Innocence
Marcellus Williams was executed by the state of Missouri on Tuesday, Sept. 24, despite concerns citing his potential innocence. Williams died by lethal injection shortly after 6 p.m. at a Missouri state prison in Bonne Terre, St. Francois County. He was 55 years old.
Following his death, there has been widespread condemnation, particularly given the execution was not supported by the prosecution nor the victim’s family.
Williams was convicted and sentenced to death in 2001 for the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle, a social worker and well-known St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter, who was killed in her home.
The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office requested the execution be called off due to concerns regarding the trial’s jury selection (the vast majority of the jury was white) and potential racial bias—Williams was Black, while Gayle was white. Additionally, DNA evidence did not link Williams to the murder.
“Even for those who disagree on the death penalty, when there is a shadow of a doubt of any defendant’s guilt, the irreversible punishment of execution should not be an option,” St. Louis County’s Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell stated, according to the .
Governor of Missouri Mike Parson and the Missouri state Supreme Court denied and rejected all appeals, including clemency pleas from Williams’ lawyers, members of the victim’s family, and the prosecution, as well as letters from from and the .
On Sept. 24, the U.S. Supreme Court
Following Williams’ execution there has been a public outcry due to the doubts surrounding his conviction, especially since it was reported in August that a new development showed that the knife used in the murder was believed to have been by DNA from a prosecutor and investigator working on the case.
Williams’ poetry and writings have been shared widely on social media. One document, which has been corroborated by publications such as , shows Williams’ handwritten “final statement” before his death, which reads, “All Praise Be to Allah in Every Situation!!!”
Many have also shared his poetry, which had been featured in multiple online journals and the .
In the lead up to, and in the aftermath of Williams’ death, many advocates also have pointed to his story as not an isolated moment—but as indicative of a greater narrative of racial injustice in the criminal justice system.
Various criminal justice advocates and politicians are also calling for the end of the death penalty, including Representative , Missouri Representative Cori Bush, and CEO of the NAACP.
“The state of Missouri and our nation’s legal system failed Marcellus Williams, and as long as we uphold the death penalty, we continue to perpetuate this depravity,” Bush said in a statement on Tuesday night after Williams’ execution.