Marcellus Williams was executed by the state of Missouri on Tuesday, Sept. 24, despite concerns citing his potential innocence. Williams died by lethal injection shortly after 6 p.m. at a Missouri state prison in Bonne Terre, St. Francois County. He was 55 years old.
In the aftermath of his death, there has been widespread condemnation, especially since the execution was not supported by the prosecution nor the victim’s family.
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Williams was convicted and sentenced to death in 2001 for the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle, a social worker and well-known St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter, who was killed in her home.
The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office urged officials and courts to call off the execution over concerns regarding the trial’s jury selection (the vast majority of the jury was white) and potential racial bias—Williams was Black, while Gayle was white. Furthermore, DNA evidence did not tie Williams to the murder.
“Even for those who disagree on the death penalty, when there is a shadow of a doubt of any defendant’s guilt, the irreversible punishment of execution should not be an option,” St. Louis County’s Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell said in a statement, according to the New York Times.
Governor of Missouri Mike Parson and the Missouri state Supreme Court denied and rejected multiple efforts to prevent the execution, including clemency pleas from Williams’ lawyers, members of the victim’s family, and the prosecution, as well as letters from from The NAACP. and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
On Sept. 24, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay of execution.
In the aftermath of Williams’ execution there has been an outcry from the public due to the doubts over his conviction, especially since it was reported in August that a new development showed that the knife used in the murder was believed to have been contaminated by DNA from a prosecutor and investigator working on the case.
Williams’ poetry and writings have been shared virally on social media. One document, which has been corroborated by publications such as Newsweek, shows Williams’ handwritten “final statement” before his death, which reads, “All Praise Be to Allah in Every Situation!!!”
Many have also shared his poetry, which had been featured in multiple online journals and the Kansas City Star.
In the lead up to, and in the aftermath of Williams’ death, many advocates also have pointed to his story as not an isolated moment—but as indicative of a greater narrative of racial injustice in the criminal justice system.
Various criminal justice advocates and politicians are also calling for the end of the death penalty, including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Missouri Representative Cori Bush, and Derrick Johnson, CEO of the NAACP.
“The state of Missouri and our nation’s legal system failed Marcellus Williams, and as long as we uphold the death penalty, we continue to perpetuate this depravity,” Bush said in a statement on Tuesday night after Williams’ execution.
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