The urgent, futile calls to halt Marcellus Williams’s execution, explained

A 55-year-old Missouri man — who maintained he was innocent — was executed Tuesday evening, and became the latest of several recent people put to death who have renewed scrutiny of the death penalty. 

In 2001, Marcellus Williams was convicted of the 1998 killing of social worker and former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Felicia “Lisha” Gayle, and sentenced to death. Since his sentencing, questions have been raised about how evidence in the case was handled and whether jury selection for his trial was fair. 

Given these concerns, and Williams’s continued claims that he did not kill Gayle, he and St. Louis prosecuting attorney Wesley Bell called for the state to vacate his conviction. While his execution was previously delayed twice before, the Missouri governor and state Supreme Court have declined to do so again this past week, and he was killed by lethal injection Tuesday. 

The outstanding uncertainty in Williams’s case — and the fact that he was put to death anyway — have put a new spotlight on capital punishment and many problems that have been cited with it. 

What are the new developments in Williams’s case?

Williams was convicted for Gayle’s murder based on the testimony of two witnesses, including his girlfriend at the time, who said she saw the victim’s purse and laptop in his car. Williams was incarcerated at the time of his conviction in the Gayle case, and his then-cellmate Henry Cole also claimed that Williams had admitted to the killing. 

Williams’s counsel argues that both witnesses had other motives for singling him out, including “reward money and a bargain for shorter sentences in their own criminal cases,” according to the Washington Post.

As USA Today notes, there wasn’t forensic evidence linking Williams to the crime, and his DNA was not found on the murder weapon — a knife. 

Since his conviction, Williams’s counsel has called for greater investigation of the DNA that was on the knife, as well as a review of racial bias in the jury selection process. Gayle’s family has also backed clemency and the possibility of a life sentence without parole. 

Previously, Williams’s counsel convinced former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens that new testing of the DNA evidence, which included DNA from another man, had the potential to exonerate him. That led Greitens to grant a stay of execution in 2017 and to convene a panel to investigate this evidence. 

Attorneys have since learned, though, that the knife had fingerprints and DNA from a prosecutor who had touched the murder weapon without wearing gloves, contaminating the evidence. 

Williams’s allies have also argued he faced racial bias in his trial after a former prosecutor said he removed a Black juror because of his resemblance to Williams. 

Williams’s attorneys called on the US Supreme Court to grant a stay of the execution due to this evidence of bias. The Court did not do so. 

The Missouri Supreme Court also declined to grant a stay, with Judge Zel Fischer citing “no credible evidence of actual innocence or any showing of a constitutional error undermining confidence in the original judgment.”

What concerns does this raise about capital punishment?

The use of capital punishment has waned in recent years as concerns about how well it works as a deterrent, how humane it is, and racial disparities in death sentences have grown. According to one 2016 study in Washington State, Black defendants are four times more likely to be sentenced to death than non-Black defendants in similar circumstances.

Although 27 states still allow the death penalty, 14 of those have not conducted any executions in the past 10 years, according to CNN. Executions have also dwindled since 1999, which marked a recent high when nearly 100 people were killed. In 2023, 24 people were executed across five states; currently, 24 people are expected to be executed this year.

Among the concerns raised by executions is the fear that innocent people could face these sentences. Williams’s team has been adamant that his case is an example of this issue. 

“Missouri is poised to execute an innocent man, an outcome that calls into question the legitimacy of the entire criminal justice system,” Tricia Bushnell, a Midwest Innocence Project attorney representing Williams, said in a statement before the execution. 

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, at least 200 people who were wrongly convicted and sentenced to death have been exonerated since 1973. And per a 2014 study estimate, roughly 4 percent of the people sentenced to death are innocent. 

Update, September 25, 10 am: This piece, originally published on September 24, has been updated to reflect Williams’s execution.