In Marcellus Williams’s petition for clemency, his mother describes it as the only mistake she ever made. His father also involuntarily left him behind. Now 55-year-old Williams is about to be executed for a murder he claims he did not commit, and he has a legion on his side. No one wants him dead – not the jury that decided his fate years ago, not the prosecution, not even the victim’s family. The only authority pushing for his execution seems to be the state of Missouri.
“The prosecution, which was responsible for the conviction and the death sentence, is now saying that mistakes were made in this case,” says Tricia Rojo Bushnell, one of Williams’ attorneys at the Innocence Project. “They have admitted mistakes, both in terms of racial discrimination, jury selection and tampering with evidence. But the state still wants to execute him. This is a really disturbing phenomenon for all of us. What is the point of this?”
Williams was initially charged with first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 2003 for the 1998 murder of social worker and reporter Felicia Gayle in a St. Louis suburb. Prosecutors alleged that Williams robbed and then stabbed Gayle while hiding her purse and his husband’s laptop in the trunk of his car. His girlfriend testified that she discovered the incriminating evidence and Williams confessed to the murder to her. Prosecutors also alleged that Williams confessed to the murder to his cellmate, Henry Cole, while he was in prison on other charges. The defense, however, argued that Cole and the girlfriend were felons after the $10,000 reward money. Regardless, Williams was found guilty and sentenced to death in August 2017.
Hours before the scheduled execution, then-Governor Eric Greitens (R) requested a stay of proceedings in light of newly discovered DNA testing on the murder weapon that indicated that an unidentified man was in fact the killer – not Williams. (There was no other physical evidence linking him to the crime, the defense said.) “To carry out the death penalty, the people of Missouri must have confidence in the verdict of guilt,” Greitens said in the statement. Greitens then formed a commission of inquiry to review the new information.
In 2023, current Governor Mike Parson (R) – who declined to comment – Rolling Stone – dissolved the investigative committee. “This committee was established nearly six years ago, and it’s time to move forward,” he said. “We could spend another six years stalling and delaying, postponing justice, leaving a victim’s family in the dark, and not solving anything. This administration will not do that. Revoking the resolution allows the process to continue in the justice system, and when due process is exhausted, everyone will have certainty.” It is currently unknown what, if anything, that committee found. Representatives of Williams’ Innocence Project claim the work is ongoing. Regardless, Williams has been given a new execution date of September 24.
Williams’ team continued to fight for him — even when it became apparent that the knife in question had been mishandled and the DNA evidence was therefore inconclusive. So at an Aug. 21 hearing, the prosecution and defense reached a compromise and decided that Williams would plead to first-degree murder in exchange for life in prison without parole, according to the Associated Press. Both the judge and Gayle’s family agreed, but at the urging of Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey — whom Parson appointed — the Missouri Supreme Court blocked the agreement and ordered an evidentiary hearing in late August. “They call the evidence in this case weak. It was overwhelming,” Assistant Attorney General Michael Spillane said at the time. He did not return Rolling StonePlease leave a comment.
On September 12, the same judge upheld the death sentence for Williams, writing, “Every allegation that Williams erred on appeal, post-conviction review, and habeas corpus review has been rejected by the courts of Missouri. There is no basis for a court to find Williams innocent, and no court has made such a finding. Williams is guilty of premeditated murder and was sentenced to death.”
The fight continues, however. The St. Louis County District Attorney’s Office filed an appeal Monday night, while the governor – who lifted Williams’ stay of execution on the grounds of “a victim’s family hanging in the balance” – received a request for clemency. Rojo Bushnell says Gayle’s family isn’t sure Williams is innocent, but doesn’t want him executed. (They declined to comment on Rolling Stone.) In fact, it is a fallacy that most victims want the death of those who have harmed them – or their family members. The Atlantic For a 2023 report, the institute surveyed 10,000 such people. It found that “victims generally do not take harsher action against criminals than non-victims. They prefer rehabilitation to harsh justice, despite having personal experience with crime and the criminal justice system.”
Even jurors reversed their earlier decision in the clemency petition. “After reviewing this new DNA evidence, it is something I would have considered in the guilt phase and it may have made a difference with the jury,” the foreman said. An alternate juror said, “After reviewing this information, I am disturbed that none of this was presented at trial and that the jury never had the opportunity to consider it. … I firmly believe that if this information had been made available to the jury, it would have made a difference in the verdict and sentence.”
The lawyers also asked the federal court to reconsider a previously rejected appeal that claimed Williams’ jury was racially disparate. In their brief, they wrote that the state used most of its rejections to exclude six of seven potential black jurors. Ultimately, the jury consisted of 11 white jurors and one black juror, the lawyers wrote in a brief Tuesday. On Wednesday, Williams’ lawyers also filed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review his case and stay his execution.
“The execution of an innocent man is a tragic and irreversible failure of the justice system,” Williams’ lawyers said. Rolling Stone in a statement. “As a society, pardons exist to ensure that our elected leaders do not fail, even when the justice system fails. When the life of an innocent person is at stake, our elected leaders must fulfill their pardoning duties and protect the public’s faith in our justice system by carefully examining all evidence, old and new. But Mr. Williams was denied the chance for a pardon, so we have turned to the Supreme Court and asked for its intervention.”
Williams is one of five men scheduled to be executed next week – and if he does indeed die on the 24th, he will be the 14th man executed in the US this year. His execution comes at a crucial time for the death penalty in America – an election year. Former President Donald Trump is a big supporter of executions; in a previous Rolling Stone A former White House official reportedly claimed that the current Republican nominee fantasized about killing members of gangs and drug cartels: “Kill them all the damn thing,” he said. “An eye for an eye.” “They need to be eradicated, not locked up,” he once said.
Trump is also a big supporter of the firing squad, which is now an accepted form of capital punishment in the US alongside the electric chair. The main reason for this is that some pharmaceutical companies refuse to provide the drugs needed for the lethal injection. This is partly because this method has the highest rate of botched executions of all.
Meanwhile, Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris – once a critic of the death penalty – has remained seemingly silent on the issue, even after President Joe Biden promised in 2020 to halt federal executions and propose legislation to abolish the death penalty at the state level. This year’s Democratic platform lacks any mention of the death penalty for the first time since 2004. The campaign team did not respond to several requests for comment.
In the meantime, Williams is doing as well as he can while he waits for the governor to either prevent his death or escort him to the chamber — or for the Supreme Court to stop him. “He’s done other things in his past that he’s not proud of,” Rojo Bushnell says. “Today, however, he’s a kind person who cares about people and wants to help them be the best version of themselves. He’s just a great reminder that we can choose. We have the opportunity to become who we want to be.”
