Missouri – Missouri carried out its third execution of the year yesterday, Tuesday, September 24, 2024. Marcellus Williams was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic, and Correctional Center in southeast Missouri.
Williams had been sentenced to death for the 1988 stabbing of former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Felicia Gayle. He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced on August 27, 2001. Throughout his imprisonment, Williams maintained his innocence, and St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell sought to have his conviction overturned, citing DNA evidence that did not match Williams. However, the state argued that the DNA results were unreliable, as the murder weapon had been handled by prosecutors over 20 years ago, and no evidence conclusively exonerated Williams.
Originally scheduled for execution by lethal injection in August 2017, Williams received a stay of execution from then-Governor Eric Greitens, who appointed a board to review new DNA evidence in the case. However, on June 29, 2023, Governor Mike Parson signed an executive order dissolving the board of inquiry and lifted the stay, allowing the execution to proceed.
The U.S. Supreme Court, the Missouri Supreme Court, and Governor Parson all declined to halt the execution. “Capital punishment cases are some of the hardest issues we face in the Governor’s Office,” Parson said in a statement. “But ultimately, I follow the law and trust the integrity of our judicial system. Mr. Williams has exhausted due process and every judicial avenue, including over 15 hearings attempting to argue his innocence. No jury or court, at any level—trial, appellate, or Supreme Court—has found merit in his claims of innocence. His guilty verdict and sentence were upheld, and nothing in the facts of this case has led me to believe otherwise. As such, his punishment will be carried out as ordered by the Supreme Court.”
With Williams’ execution, Missouri now has nine men awaiting the death penalty.
