OAN Staff Blake Wolf
11:18 AM – Wednesday, September 25, 2024
Marcellus Williams, who was previously convicted for the brutal murder of Lisha Gayle in 1998, was put to death on Tuesday, despite the victim’s family and the prosecutor objecting to the death penalty.
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The case of Williams, 55, garnered national media attention as he maintained his innocence while prosecutors attempted to appeal the death penalty sentencing due to “questionable jury selection” as well as the proven mishandling of evidence in the case.
“Marcellus Williams should be alive today. There were multiple points in the timeline when 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,” stated Wesley Bell, the chief prosecutor for St. Louis County.
The United States Supreme Court had denied multiple appeals to avoid executing Williams an hour ahead of his death.
“No jury nor court, including at the trial, appellate, and Supreme Court levels, have ever found merit in Mr. Williams’s innocence claims,” stated Missouri Governor Mike Parson.
“At the end of the day, his guilty verdict and sentence of capital punishment were upheld. Nothing from the real facts of this case have led me to believe in Mr. Williams’ innocence,” Parson continued.
Tricia Joe Bushnell, Williams’s attorney, released a statement following SCOTUS’ decision.
“Tonight, Missouri will execute an innocent man, Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams,” she stated. “As dark as today is, we owe it to Khaliifah to build a brighter future. We are thankful to the St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney, for his commitment to truth and justice and all he did to try to prevent this unspeakable wrong. And for the millions of people who signed petitions, made calls, and shared Khaliifah’s story.”
Williams was charged back in 1999 for the first-degree murder of Gayle, which Williams was found guilty of in 2001. In the original trial, prosecutors argued that Williams broke into Gayle’s home in August of 1998 and stabbed her 43 times with a butcher knife, and then proceeded to steal her purse and her husband’s laptop.
Court documents stated that the knife was left lodged in Gayle’s body, with blood, hair, fingerprints, and shoe prints believed to belong to the perpetrator found inside the home.
Meanwhile, Williams’s defense maintained that his DNA was not found on the murder weapon. However, there were two other “unidentified sources of DNA” found on the knife, which was later revealed to belong to the former prosecutor and investigator on the case, as they failed to handle the murder weapon with gloves.
The fact that both of these professional individuals purportedly forgot to wear gloves has been highlighted as being extremely suspicious by supporters of Williams.
Authorities claimed that Williams had stolen a jacket to conceal the blood on his shirt from the murder, noting that his girlfriend asked him why he was “wearing a jacket on a hot day.” When Williams’s girlfriend gave her own testimony, she claimed that she noticed seeing a purse and laptop in his car, the same items that were stolen during the murder.
Prosecutors also aided their case with testimony from a fellow prisoner named Henry Cole, who shared a cell with Williams in 1999. Cole told prosecutors that Williams had allegedly confessed to the killing and had also provided details as to how he went about it.
However, Williams’s attorneys argued that since both the girlfriend and Cole were convicted of felonies, they just simply wanted the offered $10,000 reward. The attorneys also reiterated that the DNA evidence collected at the scene “did not match Williams.”
During the execution, Williams’s son and two attorneys watched from another room as he laid down awaiting his death alongside a spiritual advisor who calmly spoke to him as he began to die.
“All Praise Be to Allah In Every Situation!!!” Williams wrote in a statement released by the Department of Corrections.
Along with the victim’s family, the NAACP vocally objected to the execution.
“Tonight, Missouri lynched another innocent Black man,” asserted NAACP President Derrick Johnson.
Williams was able to avoid execution in 2015 and 2017, however, the latest attempt to appeal his execution was unsuccessful. Parson and the state Supreme Court rejected appeals on Monday and declined to intervene hours leading up to his death on Tuesday.
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