A Missouri man convicted of breaking into a woman鈥檚 home and repeatedly stabbing her was executed Tuesday over the objections of the victim鈥檚 family and the prosecutor, who wanted the death sentence commuted to life in prison.
Marcellus Williams, 55, was convicted in the 1998 killing of Lisha Gayle, who was stabbed during the burglary of her suburban St. Louis home.
Williams was put to death despite questions his attorneys raised over jury selection at his trial and the handling of evidence in the case. His clemency petition focused heavily on how Gayle鈥檚 relatives wanted Williams鈥 sentence commuted to life without the possibility of parole.
鈥淭he family defines closure as Marcellus being allowed to live,鈥 the petition stated. 鈥淢arcellus鈥 execution is not necessary.鈥
As Williams lay awaiting execution, he appeared to converse with a spiritual adviser seated next to him. Williams wiggled his feet underneath a white sheet that was pulled up to his neck and moved his head slightly while his spiritual advisor continued to talk. Then Williams' chest heaved about a half dozen times, and he showed no further movement.
Williams' son and two attorneys watched from another room. No one was present on behalf of the victim's family.
The Department of Corrections released a brief statement that Williams had written ahead of time, saying: 鈥淎ll Praise Be to Allah In Every Situation!!!鈥
Republican Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said he hoped the execution brings finality to a case that 鈥渓anguished for decades, revictimizing Ms. Gayle鈥檚 family over and over again.鈥
鈥淣o juror nor judge has ever found Williams鈥 innocence claim to be credible,鈥 Parson said in a statement.
Joseph Amrine, who was exonerated two decades ago after spending years on death row, speaks at a rally to support Missouri death row inmates Marcellus Williams on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Clayton, Mo. (AP Photo/Jim Salter)
The NAACP had been among those urging Parson to cancel the execution.
鈥淭onight, Missouri lynched another innocent Black man,鈥 NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement.
It was the third time Williams faced execution. He got reprieves in 2015 and 2017, but his last-ditch efforts this time were futile. Parson and the state Supreme Court rejected his appeals in quick succession Monday, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene hours before he was put to death.
Last month, Gayle鈥檚 relatives gave their blessings to an agreement between the St. Louis County prosecuting attorney鈥檚 office and Williams鈥 attorneys to commute the sentence to life in prison. But acting on an appeal from Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey鈥檚 office, the state Supreme Court nullified the agreement.
Williams was among death row inmates in five states who were scheduled to be put to death in the span of a week 鈥 an unusually high number that defies a yearslong decline in the use and support of the death penalty in the U.S. The first was carried out Friday in South Carolina. Texas was also slated to execute a prisoner on Tuesday evening.
Gayle, 42, was a social worker and former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter. Prosecutors at Williams鈥 trial said he broke into her home on Aug. 11, 1998, heard the shower running and found a large butcher knife. Gayle was stabbed 43 times when she came downstairs. Her purse and her husband鈥檚 laptop were stolen.
Authorities said Williams stole a jacket to conceal blood on his shirt. His girlfriend asked him why he would wear a jacket on a hot day. She said she later saw the purse and laptop in his car and that Williams sold the computer a day or two later.
Prosecutors also cited testimony from Henry Cole, who shared a cell with Williams in 1999 while Williams was jailed on unrelated charges. Cole told prosecutors that Williams confessed to the killing and provided details about it.
Williams鈥 attorneys responded that the girlfriend and Cole were both convicted of felonies and wanted a $10,000 reward. They said that fingerprints, a bloody shoeprint, hair and other evidence at the crime scene didn鈥檛 match Williams鈥.
A crime scene investigator had testified the killer wore gloves.
Correctional Officers with the Missouri Department Corrections patrol the area as protesters opposed to the execution of Marcellus Williams pray outside the state prison, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (Zachary Linhares/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)
Questions about DNA evidence also led St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell to request a hearing challenging Williams鈥 guilt. But days before the Aug. 21 hearing, new testing showed that DNA on the knife belonged to members of the prosecutor鈥檚 office who handled it without gloves after the original crime lab tests.
Without DNA evidence pointing to any alternative suspect, Midwest Innocence Project attorneys reached a compromise with the prosecutor鈥檚 office: Williams would enter a new, no-contest plea to first-degree murder in exchange for a new sentence of life in prison without parole. A no-contest plea isn鈥檛 an admission of guilt but is treated as such for the purpose of sentencing.
Judge Bruce Hilton signed off, as did Gayle鈥檚 family. But Bailey appealed, and the state Supreme Court blocked the agreement and ordered Hilton to proceed with an evidentiary hearing, which took place last month.
Hilton ruled on Sept. 12 that the first-degree murder conviction and death sentence would stand, noting that Williams鈥 arguments all had been previously rejected. That decision was upheld Monday by the state Supreme Court.
Attorneys for Williams, who was Black, also challenged the fairness of his trial, particularly the fact that only one of the 12 jurors was Black. Tricia Bushnell of the Midwest Innocence Project said the prosecutor in the case, Keith Larner, removed six of seven Black prospective jurors.
Larner testified at the August hearing that he struck one potential Black juror partly because he looked too much like Williams 鈥 a statement that Williams鈥 attorneys asserted showed improper racial bias.
Larner contended that the jury selection process was fair.
Williams was the third Missouri inmate put to death this year and the 100th since the state resumed use of the death penalty in 1989.
AP writer Mark Sherman contributed from Washington. Salter reported from O鈥橣allon, Mo.
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