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What was Marcellus Williams convicted of? This is the reason why he has been executed
After attempts to spare his life failed, Marcellus Williams was executed on Tuesday.
A Missouri man was executed by lethal injection on Tuesday, after the US Supreme Court denied 11th-hour appeals to spare his life.
What was Marcellus Williams convicted of?
Marcellus Williams’ death sentence was carried out 23 years after he was found guilty of the murder of Felicia “Lisha” Gayle, a former journalist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Williams was convicted of first-degree murder, robbery and burglary.
In August 1998, Gayle was found murdered in her home in University City, Missouri, having been stabbed 43 times.
In the years after Williams was placed on death row, both Gayle’s family and the current St. Louis County prosecutor, Wesley Bell, had petitioned for his sentence to be commuted to life in prison.
Indeed, after new DNA evidence raised questions about Williams’ guilt, Bell reached an agreement with the 55-year-old’s attorneys this summer: Williams would plead no contest to first-degree murder and be re-sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
However, this deal was subsequently blocked by the Missouri Supreme Court.
Per the Associated Press, Williams had previously had his execution stayed in 2015 and 2017.
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“Williams should be alive today”
In a statement reacting to Williams’ execution, Bell said on the social-media platform X: “Marcellus Williams should be alive today. There were multiple points in the timeline that decisions could have been made that would have spared him the death penalty.
“If there is even the shadow of a doubt of innocence the death penalty should never be an option. This outcome did not serve the interests of justice.”
Missouri governor backs execution
However, Missouri governor Mike Parson insisted: “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 and overturn his conviction.
“No jury nor court, including at the trial, appellate, and Supreme Court levels, have ever found merit in Mr. Williams’ innocence claims.”
According to ABC, this is the third execution in Missouri this year, and the 100th since the state brought back the death penalty in 1989.